It probably wasn't a coincidence that construction on a new restaurant started at the same time ground was broken on a new movie theater in an adjacent lot. As construction crews continue in the early phases of work on a new 14-screen Cinemark movie theater, workers are putting the finishing touches on a Panda Express Chinese food restaurant.
The theater is being built in the northwest quadrant of Atlantic and Kernan boulevards in the Atlantic North shopping center. With few sit down restaurants in the immediate area, that will likely change with the theater development.
With barely a handful of stores - Belk's, Earth Fare, Academy Sports and LA Fitness - there's plenty of room to grow in the shopping center. If Cinemark's Tinseltown Theatre in Southside is any indication, this East Arlington neighborhood may be in for a restaurant boom.
Moviegoers have to eat somewhere and those eateries don't exist yet in and around the Atlantic North shopping center.