A £20MILLION luxury housing development will restore Preston's historic Centenary Mill to its former glory.

Work has started on the rejuvenation of the 109-year-old building in Newhall Lane and developers believe it will be ready by Christmas.

"It is going to be something out of this world," said Joe Darragh, director of the Mandale Group which is developing the site.

He added: "I think that our development will really lift the area."

The new-look building will have 200 luxury apartments, a basement leisure centre with a swimming pool and gym, and on site parking.

A glass dome roof will encase the open plan atrium that will be at the heart of the development.

And the apartments themselves will host state-of-the-art technology with features such as top-of-the-range built-in flat screen plasma televisions.

The work will involve revamping the existing structure and building four three-storey blocks, to create the exclusive development.

The one, two, and three bedroom apartments are expected to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000 each.

The Grade II listed building, famous for being the Horrockses cotton factory, has stood empty since the mid-1980s, apart from a period when part of the building was used by a jeans manufacturing company.

Built in 1894 at the height of the cotton industry, Centenary Mill cost £125,000 to build, which would be around £40million today.