NORTH KINGSTOWN — Earlier this year, the Quonset Gateway project appeared indefinitely shelved, derailed by a state board that regarded the array of giant retail shops and office buildings as a waste of valuable real estate.

Yesterday, just seven months after the State Planning Council rejected the proposal, the Boston-based developer traveled to the Quonset Business Park to celebrate the planned start of construction.

“We invested in the Quonset Gateway because we believe in the opportunities that it will create for businesses and for the people who live and work here,” said Jerry Rappaport Jr., president and chief executive officer of New Boston Fund Inc.

The ceremony was made possible by major revisions to the project, including a significant expansion of the office buildings and an effort to hide two large retail shops — a 117,000-square-foot Lowe’s and an 89,000-square-foot Kohl’s — and the oceanic parking lots that will serve their customers.

Those adjustments helped win support from the State Planning Council, which last month reversed its original ruling.

The governing board of the Quonset Development Corporation, the state agency that manages the park, voted Oct. 15 to authorize the leasing of the land to New Boston.

“Everyone is looking to expedite things,” Dyana Koelsch, a QDC spokeswoman, said yesterday. “There’s a feeling of: Let’s get going on the project.”

At yesterday’s “groundbreaking,” advocates of the project were served steaming hot cider, oysters, shrimp and sushi in a heated tent, and heard live music along with speeches from the New Boston executives. Before the speeches, Governor Carcieri put on a white helmet and shoveled dirt onto a mound of earth on the property. “It’s going to be beautifully done,” Carcieri said of the project.

But New Boston needs several other approvals before it can begin construction.

This week, the QDC’s Design Review Committee is completing its analysis of the proposed site preparations, including the installation of utilities and the leveling of the property.

The committee — made up of Jack F. Sprengel, the director of operations; Steven J. King, the chief operating officer; and planning specialist Heidi Green — is being assisted by Providence-based consultancy the Maguire Group.

Although the state says it is not subsidizing the $144-million project, the QDC completed substantial improvements to the 73-acre site to encourage investments.

To clear the property, for example, the state paid to demolish a series of old Navy buildings, including a barracks, cafeteria, gymnasium and bowling alley. Many of the structures, some more than a half-century old, required asbestos removal before razing.

New Boston will also need approval for the design of the proposed structures, including a hotel, restaurants and office buildings.

The state building commissioner must ultimately approve the buildings. But first, New Boston needs the support of the QDC’s design committee, which advises the QDC board. The committee, scheduled to meet next on Monday, will judge the attractiveness of the architecture, as well as the impact of the buildings on the environment and on the rest of the 3,000-acre park.

QDC officials predict construction will start by late December. But the design panel is not necessarily a rubber stamp. Among its members are architects Michael Viveiros, of the Providence firm Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects, and Rhode Island School of Design Prof. Christopher Bardt.

For the Gateway review, Kevin M. Flynn, the state’s top planning official, Jonathan Reiner, the North Kingstown planning director, and Elizabeth Dolan, of the Quonset Community Advisory Committee, will also review the proposals.

The Gateway, meanwhile, still has critics, particularly after New Boston declined to remove the Lowe’s and Kohl’s outlets in the new design.

Last month, Scott Wolf, the executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island, questioned why New Boston had set aside more space for single-story retail shops than for the offices that promise the highest-paying jobs at the Gateway. “Grow Smart continues to have serious concerns about this broad expanse of single-story retail,” Wolf said.

Over all, the Gateway is expected to generate more than 2,000 jobs, including 1,200 office jobs, advocates say. State officials have been emphasizing the office space, saying it could accommodate innovative companies that would spur the state’s shaky transition from traditional manufacturing.

At yesterday’s ceremony, Saul Kaplan, the head of the state Economic Development Corporation and chairman of the QDC’s governing board, boasted, “Quonset is on a roll.” Even before the first tenants are identified, however, Kaplan has sought to lower expectations. “There is no scenario,” Kaplan said in a recent op-ed piece in The Providence Journal, “where Quonset — park or port — provides a full-scale repositioning of our economy.”

bgedan@projo.com