IT is Scotland's version of Canary Wharf - and it's made in Govan.
In one of the most unlikely transformations, a site at the forefront of Glasgow's Industrial Revolution is now taking shape as the heart of Glasgow's digital revolution.
Pacific Quay, a 60-acre former dockland site which became the home of the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988, is the city's new media quarter.
By the end of this year both BBC and STV and a host of smaller multi-media organisations will have relocated there.
The Science Centre is already a popular tourist attraction and a cafe society culture is now expected to spring up on the south bank of the River Clyde.
In five years' time, more than 3500 people will be employed at Pacific Quay and there will be ultra-modern transport links to the city centre - including futuristic tram-style buses (Clyde Fastlink) which will run across the Squinty Bridge.
The quay, which is directly across the Clyde from the SECC, is costing £500million to redevelop.
It will even be home to the Glasgow base for the Clyde to Loch Lomond seaplane service, due to begin operations later this summer.
Colum Halforty, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow's director of competitive infrastructure, said: "Scotland has the highest concentration of companies in the creative industries sector outside of London.
"Although development is focusing on Pacific Quay it is expected to have significant knock-on benefits for the wider Govan area. The digital media and creative sectors account for 21,000 jobs in the city including broadcasting, publishing, the arts and multimedia industries.
"This new media quarter presents a great opportunity to create a distinctive and dedicated centre of excellence with a range of property options for the creative industries within the city."
Mr Halforty said the area has also been marketed internationally in a bid to attract foreign media companies.
He added: "It is all very well people in Glasgow and Scotland knowing about this place but we want to reach a wider audience. Word is already getting out."
Pacific Quay is already home to Glasgow Science Centre, which features an IMAX cinema and the 127-metre high Glasgow Tower.
Radio station XFM Scotland is based there, as are Film City Glasgow and STV's owners Scottish Media Group.
And the BBC has started its move from Queen Margaret Drive into its new Scottish headquarters next to the Science Centre.
Over the next few years more buildings will sprout up around the old canting basin, where ships used to turn before heading back down the River Clyde.
Next to the IMAX cinema, a new high-quality "signature" restaurant will be built.
Next to that will be the 30,000sq ft Medius building, which is expected to be complete in December. It will house a number of smaller digital media companies.
And on the site beside that a 70,000 sq ft building will be home to more companies as well as a cafe and media conference centre. A media business centre will be built at the entrance to the quay which Mr Halforty hopes will be seen as a "gateway building".
On the south side of the basin there will be smaller units built to meet demand.
Mr Halforty said: "We see this very much as an extension of the city centre and particularly as part of the SECC development."
He pointed out the site was accessed by the Clyde Arc - or Squinty Bridge as it is affectionately known - and by two pedestrian bridges, the Bells Bridge and the Millennium Bridge.
"In the next few years the new Clyde fastlink service will come into operation and that will put this area on the public transport map.
"We are also talking about how we can link in with the rest of Govan and how this work can benefit the people who already live here."
He said European money had been granted for the project on the understanding that more than 3000 people would be employed there by 2012.
"We are well on our way to achieving that figure, in fact I am sure we will exceed it." The new STV building is a key part of the new Pacific Quay development which will offer Glaswegians a whole new range of services How Prince's Dock looked in 1960 Dock was at heart of shipyards' golden age
THE dockland which now houses Pacific Quay was one of the busiest Clydeside docks during the river's shipbuilding heyday.
Originally a market garden, work began in 1890 to create Cessnock Dock. Seven years later it was officially opened by the Duke of York and renamed Prince's Dock.
It had three inner basins, more than two miles of quays and 35 acres of water space. It was the first dock in Glasgow to use heavy cranes to lift engines and boilers.
There were two-storey warehouses, coal hoists and a maze of railway sidings and it was used to export coal from the Lanarkshire pits and to import limestone and iron ore from elsewhere.
The Clyde Navigation Trust spent more than £1million to equip the dock, including building a hydraulic power station at the south-eastern tip of the site to power the cranes.
The A-listed red brick power station has been converted to offices and is known as the Four Winds building.
In 1971 the quays were closed down, all the sheds flattened, cranes removed and all the basins - except the canting basin - infilled with rubble from nearby demolished tenements.
The site was redeveloped by the Scottish Development Agency to house the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988.
It was inherited by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and the new developments have been almost 20 years in the planning.
Yesterday the Evening Times told how Scottish enterprise Glasgow boss Stuart Patrick believes he can put up to £8000 in every Glaswegian's pocket by creating 50,000 well-paid jobs in the next 10 years.
