SUMMERHAVEN, Ariz. — The Mt. Lemmon Hotel is putting the finishing touches on the hotel set to open soon and KGUN 9 cameras were allowed inside for a sneak peek.
“The process for this started for us in 2018, when we began talks of acquiring the land work really began in earnest in March of 2020,” said Justin Hafner, owner.
Some cabins are already finished and fully equipped for a cozy getaway into cooler weather.
Owner Justin Hafner said what sparked it all was a dinner at the Sawmill Run Restaurant in Summerhaven.
“Somebody came in and asked if there was a place they can stay for the night,” he explained.
Then, he noticed another person asked the same question. That’s when he said a light bulb went off.
“We said we think there's probably a need up here, and we began investigating and there. The rest is history at this point,” he said.
The development of the hotel didn’t come without a couple of setbacks like the Bighorn Fire and the pandemic
“The fire shut us down for about two months where we really had to completely stop work we had to evacuate the site,but that actually probably put us behind many more months than those two because many of our workers had to fill their schedules with other jobs,” he said.
Hafner said you can book reservations in April on the hotel's website.