Nicole Hayden

Times Herald

Carpet needs to be installed, movie screens need to be assembled and the dust needs to be swept up — and then Sperry’s Moviehouse will open.

The boutique theater, at 301 Huron Ave., Port Huron, will open to the public for the first time at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 15 to screen "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." The film is set to premiere on Dec. 16, but box offices across the country have received the OK to host early screenings the evening before.

Tickets sales have already spiked.

Scott Beedon, Sperry’s Moviehouse general manager, said he advises people buy their tickets in advance. He expects tickets to sell out soon, with none being available to purchase the day of. The online site – www.sperrysmoviehouse.com – allows customers to choose the specific seat they want to sit in.

While Thursday, Dec. 15 will just feature Star Wars on the first floor, the following day will bring additional first-run movies to the historic Sperry’s building.

Concessions will be available, but the second-floor restaurant will not open until a later date.

Customers will still be able to order off of a theater menu until then though, which includes items such as a small plates, poutine, mac and cheese, popcorn shrimp and salad in a cup.

Sperry's could open in time for Star Wars premiere

“We are opening the theaters first and then we will have a big splash later once the whole thing is open,” Beedon said. “Right now we are focused on getting the 12 theaters open.”

The individual theaters are smaller than typical cinemas with 27 to 44 seats in each one. The theaters feel intimate and private – as if your living room turned into a theater for a day.

“The goal when designing the chairs was to make the most durable, commercial-grade chair that had that residential style,” said Chuck Reid, Sperry’s Moviehouse owner and developer. “It’s a zero-gravity style chair with two motors inside for infinite settings.”

Basically, the seat can lean back and the foot-rest can rise up.

Beedon said the moviehouse is a showroom for Charter House Innovations, Reid’s parent company located on the west side of the state that specializes in the design and manufacturing of seating and décor. Each theater in Sperry’s is slightly different to show off different products that Charter House offers. Some chairs are black while others are tan with a varying headrest.

“Everything in this building was designed by Charter House Innovations,” Reid said. “The chairs are Michigan-made, almost everything is Michigan-made. The interior design was done by our staff, everything. For us, this is a showroom to sell our chairs to other theaters.”

In addition to comfort, Reid said he also wanted to focus on being environmentally friendly. All of the 420 seats in the theater will be powered by solar panels that are being installed on the roof of Sperry’s this week. The chairs will each have battery packs that store the energy, allowing the chairs to run on solar even after the sun sets.

And for the history buffs, Reid said he partnered with the Port Huron Museum to incorporate photos, signs and artifacts reminiscent of when Sperry’s was a bustling department store.

“We have some pretty cool wall graphics that pay homage to Sperry’s,” Reid said. “When you are here, you will know you are in Sperry’s. The museum has provided us with a boatload of images that we still need to put up.”

Once the theater is complete, Reid will move his focus to developing CityFlats Hotel in the old Michigan National Bank building at 802 Military St., Port Huron. But right now, Reid said it’s “all Sperry’s, all the time.”

Originally, Reid had planned to open the boutique hotel in Sperry’s until he purchased the old bank building in February 2015. He felt the bank building was a better fit for a hotel. Once plans changed and funding was secured, construction on the $10 million Sperry’s Moviehouse project began this past March.

Reid said he is excited to see Sperry’s Moviehouse finally open in Port Huron.

To purchase tickets go to www.sperrysmoviehouse.com.

Contact Nicole Hayden at (810) 989-6279 or nhayden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @nicoleandpig.

Sperry's Moviehouse