BOSTON — When General Electric decided to leave its longtime home in Connecticut and chose the waterfront district here for its new headquarters, it thrust a once-windswept province for fishermen and dock workers into the spotlight.

Still, beyond the arrival of G.E., long a bellwether of the American economy, the South Boston waterfront is growing at breakneck pace, a sign of this city’s popularity with global investors and solid reputation as a fountainhead of research and development.

Thomas M. Menino, a city mayor who died in 2014, had envisioned the area, just across the Fort Point Channel from downtown as an “innovation district,” with state-of-the-art office space, plenty of walk-to-work apartments, numerous restaurants, and pedestrian-friendly streets and parks. Since 2000, the area has gained 10 million square feet of development and more than 4,000 residents. And in recent years, the appetite for a Seaport address has only increased, such that 2,700 residential units and 1.3 million square feet of office space are now in some stage of construction, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

From upstart technology companies to cutting-edge biomedical firms to traditional corporate giants, the Seaport is attracting businesses to both brick-and-beam style office space in old industrial buildings and to new glass office towers overlooking Boston Harbor.