MURRELLS INLET -- The south end's new movie theater, bowling alley and game center are on track to debut in May at Inlet Square, and the mall's only food tenant is expected to open late this month as the once-struggling shopping center aims to re-energize.
Work on Frank Theatre and the adjacent Revolutions family entertainment center has started near Books-A-Million, where crews will build the 11-screen theater with stadium seating and a 23,593-square-foot bowling alley and game complex. The entertainment center, operated by Frank Theatres, will have 16 Brunswick lanes, arcade games and kids' rides.
The theater is a key component in the potential rebirth of the mall, which emerged from bankruptcy with new owners a year ago. They finished a renovation in the summer and are working to fill empty store spaces.
The mall's first food tenant in months, Chef Smitty's - which serves seafood, burgers and sandwiches and also operates at Coastal Grand Mall - is expected to bring life to the empty food court when it opens Chef Smitty's South in late December. Chef Smitty's Bistro, a sit-down restaurant with more upscale food and cocktails, will open at the mall in March.
"There's a lot of residents just waiting for this mall to happen," said Eric Smith, who owns Chef Smitty's with his son Gregg. "People have to go in there and get it started. So I figured I'd go in there and get it started."
Chef Smitty's South plans to open in the former Chick-fil-A space in the mall's empty food court, part of which has been consumed by the emerging entertainment complex.
Several seasonal and permanent stores have moved into the mall recently, including 20 Below clothing and accessories, Toy R Us Express, SoRea Designs jewelry, Ice Cream Truck and Myrtle Beach Golf Shop. Another store - Scrapbook Paper Garden, which has all things needed for scrapbooking - plans to open in January, mall General Manager Suzanne Oden said.
Some of the stores opened with a month-to-month lease, a way to let them try out the mall and sign on permanently if business meets expectations, Oden said.
"We are really making progress," she said.
Some shoppers and businesses said the theater and new food offerings should help jumpstart a revival for the mall - though it will have to work past the image it developed in the rough years.
"They've got a master challenge," said Sarah Beck of Surfside Beach, who was walking at the mall with her husband, Alan, last week. "We would be very happy to see the mall come to life again."
Myrtle Beach Golf Shop, which opened a 6,000-square-foot store across from Stein Mart on Thursday, wanted to "get in on the front end" of what store partner Chuck Hutchinson expects will be an increase in business once the theater opens.
The challenge will be persuading residents to give the mall another chance, he said. The mall went downhill after filing for bankruptcy, and the renovation stalled, leaving exposed ceilings, unfinished floors in spots and other signs of construction. Stores left and shoppers stopped coming to the handful of stores that remained.
The renovation, which added skylights, a new floor, outside signs and other features, was finished in August, and mall managers have since focused on filling the store spaces.
"You have to get past the reputation it had in the past," Hutchinson said.
The theater originally planned to open in early 2011, but that debut was pushed to May when Frank Theatres expanded the project by adding the bowling alley and game center, Oden said.
Mall officials say it will be worth the wait, adding an entertainment outlet not only for the mall but for the south end.
The closest theater for south end movie-goers is at The Market Common in Myrtle Beach.
"It is much needed," Oden said. "The south strand is in dire need."
Frank Theatres, which operates 27 theaters in the Carolinas and five other states, is in an expansion mode, with the Inlet Square theater, one of about nine new theaters in the works, according to the company's website. The chain is familiar with the area, with theaters in Conway and Shallotte, N.C.
Officials with the chain - which has headquarters in Jupiter, Fla., and Atlantic City, N.J. - could not be reached for comment.
The Inlet Square mall theater will have leather rocker seats and all-digital sound, with the entertainment complex boasting a Starlight Cafe serving beer and wine.
Store workers and the mall's manager say the theater is the key to luring more people - especially families - and getting the mall going again.
"Definitely it is going to kick start it," said Steven Schwartz, a worker in Books-A-Million.
Murrells Inlet resident Steve Welch, who was checking out the "Coming Soon" list of theater features posted on the temporary construction wall last week, is ready for the theater and the bowling alley.
Welch, like other mall walkers and shoppers, also wants food options added.
"I hope more businesses will come," he said.
Smith, aka Chef Smitty, anticipates the mall, which he says caters to locals, will be a major player again by summer or fall.
"Once this mall gets up, gets some national stores in there, this will be a nice, vibrant, community mall," he said. "Really, it's going to be a good place to be once it happens."
Residents such as the Becks of Surfside Beach are rooting for a mall where they shopped, walked and congregated regularly, then watched it spiral down. "We hope the mall makes it," Alan Beck said.
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