Up to 1500 jobs are expected to be created under the £50 million scheme being built by Scottish Widows on the site of the former meat market on the corner of Fountainbridge and Semple Street.

New images released today show how three striking office blocks will be created under the plans for the former Fat Sams restaurant site.

Scottish Widows, which is pursuing the development through its asset management wing, has spent months dismantling and demolishing a number of buildings on the corner of the site, including the old meat market, which opened in 1884.

The B-listed arched facade is to be moved several yards to a new home at a public entrance to the development.

Financial services firms, legal and accountancy outfits and technology companies are thought to be interested in the scheme, which will feature a central courtyard and walkways linked to other developments in the city's financial district.

Although it is close to the firm's existing Port Hamilton headquarters on Morrison Street, the scheme is a speculative office development which will be put on the market once built.

As well as the 200,000sq ft of office space, it will include space for two restaurants.

Historic Scotland and the city council approved the move of the arches last year after the company argued that the new entranceway would fit in well with the office scheme and other nearby developments.

A spokeswoman for Scottish Widows Investment Partnership said: "The arches are shortly to be removed from the site to a stonemasons yard to be cleaned and stored.

"As part of the completion of the development, they will be erected at a new entrance where they will be rebuilt in their original form of two freestanding arches."

The Scottish Widows development is close to another major new office scheme already taking shape in Fountainbridge.

A joint venture between Scotmid and Gladedale Capital is behind the £40m Lochrin Square scheme, which will create just under 100,000sq ft of office space.

Cameron Stott, a director with leading property agents Jones Lang Lasalle, said: "Work on the Scottish Widows scheme should get under way in the summer with a likely completion date of early 2009.

"It's a much-needed development because of the quality of the office space and the size of the scheme, and will help address issues over a lack of supply of good office sites in the city.

"There is only one major office scheme due for completion in the city centre in 2008, at the West Port, and although a number of sites are due for completion this year there is already strong interest in them."

SLAUGHTERHOUSE'S FASHIONABLE JOINTS
AS well as the Fat Sam's restaurant, which closed around six years ago, the former meat market was home to a number of nightspots, including Annabel's.

The building had been converted into a nightspot by businessman John "Paddy" Reilly, who quit the RAF to become a taxi driver in Edinburgh before launching a career as a property developer.

Famous for the bulls' heads on its frontage, the building was designed by architect Robert Morham.

The meat market opened in 1884 was based on the site at Fountainbridge until 1920 when it and other slaughter-houses relocated to Gorgie.