Work has begun on a £40m shopping centre in Cumbernauld to help the existing town centre shed its image as the most dismal in Scotland.
The Antonine Centre will create 600 jobs, house 42 stores including Next and TKMaxx, and have 3,000 parking spaces. It will open in May 2007.
Cumbernauld has twice won the Carbuncle award for Scotland's most dismal town centre in an architecture magazine.
But councillor Barry McCulloch said the project signalled its rebirth.
Civic leaders gathered as the first structural steelwork was erected at the 250,000sq ft site on Tuesday.
"I hope that this will enable people living in the area to take renewed pride in the town"
The new building will link to the existing town centre shopping complex via lifts, escalators and walkways.
Cllr McCulloch, of Campsies Centre Cumbernauld Ltd (CCCL), the company set up to redevelop the town centre, welcomed the new shopping centre.
He said: "Cumbernauld is going through a major transition. This new centre not only represents a substantial investment in the future of Cumbernauld but will also create 600 new jobs.
"I hope that this will cement the continued regeneration of Cumbernauld town centre and enable people living in the area to take renewed pride in the town."
The Carbuncle Awards are run by architecture magazine Prospect, who gave Cumbernauld its Plook on the Plinth Award for the most dismal town in Scotland in 2001 and 2005.
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