Town Center to bridge gap in Superior

SUPERIOR – Superior is a town sliced in two.

At the northwest corner sits the original town, surrounded by new amenities such as the Superior Marketplace shopping center. To the south, there’s a wide swath of open space separating the original town from the massive Rock Creek subdivision.

That gap might finally soon be bridged, with plans for the 157-acre, $700 million Superior Town Center recently gaining final approval from the town board of trustees.

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“There’s people in town who see it almost as two distinct communities because you have this vast open land between the two,” town manager Matt Magley said recently. Superior Town Center “is that missing piece that I think people have been looking forward to seeing what happens there.”

The imminence of the Superior Town Center – a vision in the works for about 20 years – dominates the construction landscape in a town of approximately 13,000 residents.

The project, at the southeast corner of McCaslin Boulevard and U.S. Highway 36, will include 1,400 homes, more than a million square feet of combined office, retail and commercial space, 12 acres of developed parks and a town square.

“I think it’s arguably some of the best developable commercial land along the 36 corridor,´ said Randy Goodson, who is managing the development for San Diego-based private equity firm Ranch Capital LLC. “It’s really neat that the town of Superior has worked so hard to have a comprehensive plan that could be approved all at once.”

Included in the project is a 150,000-square-foot recreation facility that will include two National Hockey League-sized ice rinks, another half-rink, an indoor soccer/lacrosse field, pool, volleyball and basketball courts, and physical therapy facilities. Also planned is a convention center hotel at the northwest corner as well as another possible hotel closer to the center of the development.

Goodson expects construction to begin by the end of the year, with most of the development built within five years.

“Different things have happened over the years, and there’s different reasons why it hasn’t developed,” Magley said. “But it sounds like we’re close.”

Landlocked by open space and other communities, Superior will be at about 95 percent build-out once Superior Town Center is complete. Population will climb to about 16,000 or 17,000, quite a jump from the 277 residents in 1990.

A few other projects that have been stalled by the recession are ramping back up, including a Resolute Investments Inc., property at the corner of Coalton Road and Tyler Drive. That 15-acre parcel includes a proposed 150,000 square feet of office space, a 60,000 square-foot hotel and 11,300 square feet of retail. The plan is flexible.

“That will evolve into a few different options,´ said Kris Barnes, Resolute’s director of acquisitions and development. “It will be market driven.”