Planet Hollywood to Be Razed for a Larger Morton’s

One year after Planet Hollywood closed its movie-themed restaurant across the street from South Coast Plaza, the mall said Monday that the building will be torn down and Morton’s of Chicago will erect a steakhouse at the site.

Currently, Morton’s operates across the street from the vacant Planet Hollywood at South Coast Plaza Village. Both properties, along with South Coast Plaza, are owned by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.

“We had many inquiries from restaurant operators about that space,” said Debra Gunn Downing, South Coast Plaza’s marketing director. The property owner favored the deal with Morton’s partly because of its existing relationship with the steakhouse operator, Downing said. The agreement was signed Friday. Terms were not released.

The Santa Ana Planet Hollywood was one of nine that closed last October as part of company’s bankruptcy reorganization. At the time, Robert Earl, chief executive of the Orlando-based restaurant chain, said he hoped a new Orange County location would replace the under-performing Santa Ana Planet Hollywood. Earl could not be reached for comment Monday.

Downing said the 14,082-square-foot Planet Hollywood will be razed in November and the new Morton’s will open in the summer. She declined to comment about who will move into Morton’s current site, saying only that “there’s something in the works.”

South Coast Plaza Village has been struggling for years to find its identity. Once a bustling little shopping arena, the center has become largely a collection of mid- to high-end restaurants, including Gustaf Anders and Antonellos.

Morton’s has been very successful at the center, said manager William Lewis, and weekends are booked weeks in advance. “We’re moving over there because it’s a bigger location and we can take more business,” he said.

The new 12,000-square-foot Morton’s will be 37% larger than the current restaurant. Further details about the restaurants were not yet available.

Leslie Earnest covers retail for The Times. She can be reached at leslie.earnest@latimes.com