Work on Gravesend’s Heritage Quarter development could start in the first half of next year after it secured major financial backing.

Developer Edinburgh House announced earlier this month that millions of pounds had been invested by the Fortress Investment Group.

The global property investor was founded in 1998 and has about £50 billion of assets under management, with offices throughout the USA and in Australia, China and Singapore. Its UK base is in London’s Savile Row.

According to its website, Fortress offers a range of “alternative and traditional investment strategies for institutional and private investors around the world”.

The £120 million Heritage Quarter is set to transform the town with 330 eco-friendly homes, retail space incorporating shops and restaurants, a 50-bedroom hotel, secure underground parking, and re-landscaped public gardens.

The first phase of the regeneration project will take in the area between Queen Street and the High Street and to the rear of Gravesend Borough Market.

Edinburgh House development manager Richard Hughes said Fortress’s investment demonstrated the confidence the private sector has in Gravesend.

He said: “They are a major backer in the project. The project has been a long time in the making and one we have never given up on, and we’re now looking forward to seeing things coming to life in 2016.”

An exact start date has not yet been revealed but the developers have said it will get under way “more than likely” in the first six months of the new year.

The development was approved by Gravesham council in April 2013 and work had been expected to start in October last year.

However, it was delayed following objections from civic society Urban Gravesham that the council had incorrectly granted planning consent.

This led to a legal battle in the High Court and a judge ruling in favour of the council.