The Long Beach Towne Center is about to get a makeover — and it’ll start with a Dave and Buster’s.

The Long Beach Planning Commission approved at its Thursday, Aug. 22 meeting a project that will demolish about 30,000 square feet of building space in the shopping center and build about 43,000 square feet of new construction for a Dave and Buster’s and another shop.

The Dave and Buster’s will occupy 41,000 square feet of the space; the tenant that will set up shop in the remaining 1,600 square feet has not yet been determined.

Currently, the closest Dave and Buster’s locations are in Torrance and Orange.

The Long Beach location will be built across from the Regal Edwards Cinema. The property to be demolished primarily consists of a food court.

During Thursday’s meeting, the Planning Commission Vice Chair Mark Christoffels expressed concern about what the plan would mean for the outdoor entertainment that frequents the plaza area outside the food court.

“How are you going to address that? Because you’ve taken a more open space and really, really confined it,” he asked of the project’s developer. “Will there be no future entertainment as a result of that?”

Jeff Axtell, representing the Long Beach Towne Center, said the changes in front of the Planning Commission Thursday were “the impetus to the redevelopment of the entire theater plaza area.”

Axtell said that at nearly 20 years old, the design of the Long Beach Towne Center has become outdated.

After the Dave and Buster’s portion of the center is completed, Axtell said, the next step in the process will be to remodel the movie theater. Then, his team will redesign the space in front of the Dave and Buster’s.

Axtell said he hoped the scheme would be a way to become “more competitive in the marketplace.”