THE east end of Glasgow has been placed firmly on the map as a place to locate business, but the story of its regeneration still has some way to run before the area reaches its economic and social potential.
Ian Manson, head of the Clyde Gateway regeneration agency, said more than £120 million of public money has been invested in infrastructure in the last six years to prepare areas such as Bridgeton, Dalmarnock, Parkhead, Rutherglen and Shawfield for development.
That investment has resulted in a £40 million private sector injection, with a varied collection of businesses setting up in the area.
These range from energy and engineering companies such as Glacier Energy and Torishima, which have moved into Clyde Gateway East, and Think Publishing, which has moved into Red Tree business units located across Bridgeton and Rutherglen. Police Scotland is also poised to move into new office space in the area.
Mr Manson said public money was continuing to flow into the area, with £50 million worth of projects on site in a "wide and varied" infrastructure programme.
But he said the time was right to shout about the commercial and residential potential of the area.
Calling on government agencies to attract inward investment to the area, he said: "We're at the key point where, having done a lot of the infrastructure work and the digging under the ground, we've now got factories, offices, sites ready for housing and commercial development.
"We're very keen to make people aware of the fact that this area is now ready to be a great location for business.
"That's probably something people are not aware of. We need to work hard to get the wider message out that this area has really changed."
Mr Manson said Clyde Gateway was currently marketing the National Business District in Shawfield to developers, after investing £20 million in site preparation and infrastructure.
He said the site potentially represents an office development worth between £50 million and £200 million of investment, which will have the capacity to house as many as 6,000 staff.
Mr Manson was speaking after welcoming Glasgow Chamber of Commerce to the area, as part of its Glasgow Talks Legacy programme.
He said Glasgow 2014 had been a "shop window and the showcase" for the change which has taken place in the area. And, far from viewing the issue of Games legacy as a burden, he sees it as motivation. Mr Manson added: "Without that attention and desire to keep things going, we know regeneration areas can slip below the horizon and out of sight."
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