A £100m icon could sit alongside the massive department store planned for part of Preston's city centre rebirth, according to the man behind it.

Multi-millionaire property developer Arif Patel is due to meet with developers Grosvenor and Lend Lease in the New Year to discuss how his 19-storey tower could fit into their £750m Tithebarn project.

He believes his vision, which include hundreds of luxury apartments, shops and a health centre, can work alongside Tithebarn and not derail it as some city leaders have feared.

Mr Patel and his brother, Faisal, met Preston Council chief executive Jim Carr and leader Coun Ken Hudson to discuss the scheme.

Mr Patel's Faisaltex firm has spent almost £200,000 on feasibility studies for the £100m masterplan, including planning meetings, environmental assessments and architects and surveyors.

Arif Patel said: "We have not said we want this scheme instead of Tithebarn, we want it to go alongside Tithebarn.

"We have never said to the council, 'Don't do Tithebarn, just let us do this'.

"We would have this building up before the Guild in 2012."

Plans for the proposed landmark building, which would sit on the former Tradex site owned by Faisaltex, have been drawn up at a "significant cost" to the developer and are now ready to be submitted for planning permission.

Former politician Frank McKenna, of lobbying group Downtown Preston in Business, has backed Mr Patel's cause and says it does not have to be a competition between the Tithebarn scheme and the £100m plan.