The regeneration company behind the iconic restoration of Lister Mills has chosen Bradford as the location for its new Yorkshire office.

Urban Splash, which is carrying out the £100 million regeneration of the landmark Bradford mill, has been basing its Yorkshire operations out of the mill for sometime but has now decided to make Bradford its permanent base in the county.

The move is expected to create new jobs in the area and will see the Manchester-based company carrying out its Yorkshire projects from the Velvet Mill.

A spokesman for Urban Splash said: "Lister Mills was the first project we worked on in Yorkshire and we have been involved in it now for sometime - it is one of our biggest contracts.

"We are still very committed to it. We recently finished the Silk Mill and have a good few years of work still to be done.

"We are very content working there as an area and like it as a place.

"We see it as a good place to grow our business. There is lots happening in Bradford and it is a good time for the region.

"We are looking to expand the team and are actively looking for people to join our development team.

"We have got a lovely big space in the mill to work at and hopefully soon we will be bursting out of that."

Samuel Lister constructed the building between 1873 and 1874, following designs by architects Andrews & Pepper. In its day it was the world's largest silk and velvet factory, supplying the Royal family and employing more than 11,000 people.

Despite increasing pressures from the far eastern market the mill was still employing more than 4,500 people by the 1970s.

Recession during the 1980s, coupled with a decline in the textile trade took a dreadful toll on the mill's fortunes and by the end of that decade fewer than 1,000 people worked there.

Urban Splash bought the mill in 2000 from the then administrators Ernst and Young and began its renovation work in 2003. In 2004 Simon Gawthorpe was appointed director for Urban Splash's Yorkshire wing.

It recently completed the work on the old Silk Mill, the first of the stunning mill buildings to be completed in the development.

The Silk Mill features 131 apartments and will house the Manningham Mills Community Association, the development's first commercial tenants.

The community centre, comprising a café, job centre, meeting and training rooms and an out-of-school club, gets its official launch on July 18 with an open day.

The completed development is expected to be home to more than 500 apartments plus a mixture of commercial business usage.