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See a video recapping the history and potential future for the Magma Hotel. to keep it steady during abatement. In 2006, part of the adobe structure collapsed.

The renovations are estimated to cost close to $4 million. The rebuilt Magma Hotel will feature 22 rooms and a high-end steak house with a rooftop terrace and lounge, Dandavate said.

Eyes on the Magma

“Our focuses are completely different,” Langton said. “We have a different clientele.”

She said she believes the Magma will attract a more-affluent guest and that her motel is definitely not high-end. Langton said she is excited to see what happens with the Magma. She thinks it will bring a new customer base to Superior, which could mean new businesses moving in and possibly more clients for her motel.

Not every local business owner is optimistic about the hotel’s future.

Leslie Martin, owner of the Copper Gecko, an antiques and handmade-crafts store on Main Street, said she has referred to the Magma Hotel as the “Next Week Hotel,” because she said she hears a lot of talk about what will happen to the hotel in the future but she rarely sees any of it happen.

Martin, who retired to Superior with her husband and opened the Copper Gecko in 2010, worries about the lack of input from the community. She said Sfeir is renovating the hotel as a hobby — one he might not have enough time for.

Before Martin opened the Copper Gecko, she said, she met with town residents to get their input on her shop.

“I asked, ‘What would you like in a store in Superior?’ and that drove what I did,” Martin said.

Martin has not yet written off Sfeir, but she worries about the

Superior town officials are excited about plans for the Magma Hotel and believe it will help with their efforts to boost tourism in Superior.

“We are trying to foster our recreation and historic elements,” said Rita Wentzel, Superior town finance director.

Wentzel said that there have been a few communication breakdowns between Sfeir and town officials because Sfeir works through and is represented by many people.

But the relationship between the town and the Magma’s new owners generally has been smooth, she said.

The possibility that the Magma Hotel could start Superior’s transformation from fading mining town to a booming tourism-based economy is a concept discussed over and over by Superior residents and business owners. They look at towns such as Jerome and Bisbee as examples.

“Going from a mining town to a tourist town is day and night,” said Gary Dillard, a Bisbee native and historian.

Dillard said it won’t be easy, but, if Superior markets the right recreational and historical attractions, it could make that transition. Superior residents cannot do it by themselves, he said.

It may be difficult for longtime residents to trust and accept new business owners, but Dillard believes nothing will change without their help.

“For small towns to be successful, they have to be lucky enough to have outside investment,” Dillard said. “It can’t happen from inside.”