The Quad building will be a centre for arts in Derby

Project leaders behind the Quad complex said work could start next summer after the East Midlands Development Agency revealed it would give �3.5m.

The rest of the cash is coming from various agencies, including the city council and the Arts Council.

The centre will host live events and include an arts cinema and galleries, and could open early in 2008.

The city council had backed the development despite some political opposition and protests over earlier plans to move a war memorial for the development.

More money

It will be built on Corporation Street and a planning application was put into the city council in August.

Quad board chairman Brian Blissett said: "Quad is an important project and it's a key part of the regeneration, economically and culturally, of the city of Derby.

"We are going out to tender and we hope to start in July 2006 and open Quad in the early months of 2008."

East Midlands Development Agency and its partner, the Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership, has confirmed �.3.5m - which is �400,000 more than it originally planned to give.

"I think once people see the cranes there they will realise it's going to happen and then people will see what a really good building it is going to be," Mr Blissett said.