A mixed-use development that has been almost 20 years in the making is finally under way in the small Boulder County community of Superior.
The Superior Town Center will be located at the interchange of McCaslin Blvd and U.S. Hwy 36, and will include 1,400 homes and more than 1 million square feet of office, retail and commercial space.
The town center project goes back to 1997, when Superior first annexed the land. At least some of the delays are because the overall vision was slow to develop.
"This project also has seen plenty of misfires, with developers putting the land under contract, but seeing the deals fall through due to lack of funds or other issues," says publisher Chris Wood. "Additionally, it took some time for a development team and the town to get on the same page about what the project would entail."
Completing the town center will accelerate the growth of Superior, which currently has about 13,000 residents. Wood says grading for the project has already begun, and construction on the first phase is set to begin in February.
Interview highlights鈥�
How will the Superior Town Center impact the town and the surrounding area?
"I can remember when I first moved to Boulder in the mid 1980s, and Superior was barely a crossroads, with dirt streets and a couple hundred residents. So the town has grown very fast in the past couple of decades, and this project will accelerate that growth once again. Mainly, the Superior Town Center is envisioned as a pedestrian-oriented project that will connect original Superior with the huge Rock Creek Ranch housing development."
With the project underway, have the different sides finally come together after years of delays?
"They did. The town just , and a developer, Ranch Capital LLC, a private equity firm based in San Diego, got involved at the beginning of the year, initially working with a developer from Telluride named Scott Brown, who had moved to Boulder County. Ranch Capital assembled the land and submitted a proposal for the project in March."
What else is involved with the project?
"There鈥檚 really a lot to the Superior Town Center. It will include a 150,000-square-foot recreation center that will include two National Hockey League-sized ice rinks, another half rink, an indoor soccer and lacrosse field, a pool, volleyball and basketball courts and physical-therapy facilities. And it will include a convention-center hotel and perhaps another hotel."
