Summerhaven, Tucson’s cool retreat not far from the top of Mount Lemmon, is experiencing a revival.

In 2003, the Aspen Fire raged through the small mountain village, destroying homes and businesses.

While many of those businesses have returned, developer Jim Campbell and longtime resident and businessman Bob Zimmerman have for some time visualized a fresh, new place where residents and visitors could come together.

They aimed to create a focal point that would help lure visitors into the pine-scented air.

That vision is now coming to life.

Construction has begun on the Sawmill Restaurant, which should open up and start serving hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks and salads in November.

“We felt that the first phase had to be a restaurant in order for the village to have a soul,” Campbell said.

The restaurant is being built on the lot that once housed the Mount Lemmon Café, a small eatery lauded for its pies that closed not long after the death of its owner in 2008.

Across the street from the restaurant (where a large tent now sits that Campbell set up to host weekly Music on the Mountain events), the idea is to eventually build The Ponderosa, an 18-unit condominium project.

That could take a while longer, though, Campbell said. Banks aren’t keen on making loans for a condo project in a secondary market.

That means it could take another three or four years – until credit loosens up a bit – before construction starts on the $3 million condo project.

Eventually, Campbell and Zimmerman hope to add additional retail next to the restaurant, but that, too, could take some time.

“Retail on the mountain is historically a bit difficult,” Campbell said. That’s because most sales activity happens during summer months, and businesses have to decide if they even want to stay open during the winter.

But the “rebirth,” as Campbell calls it, is coming to fruition with construction of the restaurant.

As for those businesses already on the mountain, it seems they welcome the new restaurant.

Vic Zimmerman (he’s not related to Bob), the owner of the Mount Lemmon Cookie Cabin, said it would create another end destination to bring Tucson residents into the mountains. “We don’t really compete with each other, but we really try to get people to come up,” Vic Zimmerman said.

With fire restrictions keeping people out of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Vic Zimmerman said, he’s probably doing only half the business he normally would. But it’s enough for him to pay the bills.

Another restaurant would only encourage more visitors and attract more customers, he said.

For his part, Bob Zimmerman, 76, said his restaurant wouldn’t serve pizza, which is a Cookie Cabin specialty.

Bob Zimmerman’s history on the mountain stretches back decades. His father, Tony Zimmerman, fell in love with the area on his first visit during a hunting trip in the late 1930s. About a decade later, the elder Zimmerman, who was nearly 103 when he died, helped get electricity to light up the small mountain village.

Bob Zimmerman spent his childhood summers there, fishing and working at his family’s inn and sawmill. When he got older he joined the Air Force and flew a fighter during the Vietnam War. He worked for a while in Cleveland, until his father told him he was going to sell all of his land on the mountain if he didn’t come back.

Bob returned, worked at the sawmill and rehabilitated his family’s inn, called the Mount Lemmon Inn, until it burned down in 1977.

Concerns about fire still loom large in the community, especially with others burning throughout the state. But Bob Zimmerman said Summerhaven residents learned from the 2003 Aspen Fire and created defensible spaces.

For years, Mount Lemmon and Summerhaven have provided an escape from the scorching desert heat of Tucson. There’s no country club or golf course up there, so it appeals mostly to those looking to make a simple connection with nature, he said.

Any new development in the village center will have to embrace that simplicity.

“You go there with the people you love when you want to be with them and remove all the stresses of live,” Zimmerman said.

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