Superior is just a small suburb surrounded by grassland. But to Jake Miller, (12) it’s been home since his childhood.
“It was full of construction, but it was a great place to live at the time,” Miller said. “It was also good to see people moving in and populating downtown.”
With each passing year, there were slow, inconsistent improvements to the area. Houses and businesses had seen little improvement until recent new developments.
Though it was inconsistent, Miller saw increasing potential for the downtown area. However, on Dec. 30, 2021, Miller’s hometown was destroyed in a way no one could have imagined.
Everything changed when the Marshall Fire destroyed over 911 homes, leaving 35,000 people displaced due to damage or destruction to their homes, including Miller and his family.
“We had smoke damage, and we had to live in a hotel for about two months when everything was getting cleaned out,” Miller said. “We had to throw out a lot of stuff that was damaged by the smoke and couldn’t be fixed.”
Though the Millers didn’t lose their house, the fire and its impacts still left them with a feeling of emptiness.
“It was sad because those were people who we knew as neighbors and as people, and it was sad to see them have a loss like that,” Miller said.
Since then, Superior Mayor Mark Lacis has prioritized revitalizing Superior, ensuring that the town not only recovers from its immense losses, but also looks ahead to long-term growth. While many homes have been rebuilt, commercial development is the final step to restore the community’s prosperity, with new businesses opening along Main Street.
The new plan for Downtown Superior includes around 80,000 square feet of commercial space. With this plan and many new businesses taking up the space, Lacis looks towards the future and the increase in community involvement and morale.
“I think we opened up 11 new businesses last year and only two closed. So you know, on balance, we’re ahead of the game, and we’ve got more new businesses that are scheduled to open up in 2025,” Lacis said.
Connor Johnson-Feeley (12), a resident of Downtown Superior, has firsthand witnessed the spike in civic engagement since the fires.
“It’s actually nice living down there. There’s a lot of people,” Johnson-Feeley said. “More people moving in every day.”
With this influx of people, businesses are seeing new sparks in community involvement, which is crucial to improving the relationship between the community and the town.
Since their grand opening on Dec. 7, Kimberly Do, owner of Krak Boba, has experienced the love and support from surrounding towns.
“All the communities around the downtown area have been excited about the opening of this location,” Do said. “We had a very successful grand opening where we saw customers from other cities nearby. We’ve seen Louisville, we’ve seen Westminster, as well as Boulder.”
With new businesses and new advancements in the town, Lacis and Do encourage residents to explore these new enhancements.
“The businesses are just going to keep popping up and growing, and they need your support, so I’d encourage everybody to come down and get a massage at Halcyon, buy some cookies at Boulder Baked, get some boba tea at Krak Boba, get your bike tuned up, and support all the local businesses,” Lacis said.
So as each day passes, more bricks are placed, and new businesses are moving into storefronts. Many feel that the Superior community has been restored. And for Miller, the growth of Downtown Superior is more than just exciting.
“It’s inspiring,” Miller said. “It’s cool to see everyone moving back into their homes, and it’s already such a construction-heavy area, that it’s just exciting to see more growth.”
