Sip, scoot, marry: 3 new businesses planned for Mt. Lemmon near Tucson

Visitors to Mount Lemmon will have more options for coffee, getting around — and getting married — as the mountaintop community of Summerhaven gains three new businesses by next summer.

Justin Hafner, co-owner of the Mount Lemmon Hotel, said he is launching Mount Lemmon Weddings as an adjunct to the hotel business, featuring an outdoor ramada perched on a cliff adjacent to the cabin-style hotel on the west side of Summerhaven’s main drag, North Sabino Canyon Parkway.

Mount Lemmon Coffee Bean and Mount Lemmon Scooters will be located just to the north between the hotel and the Chuck Bowden Mount Lemmon Community Center and run by two local residents, said Hafner.

The plan is for the three businesses to open next spring or summer as the hotel is completed, with the installation of six cabins to join the nine units already built and in use since Hafner and his wife and hotel co-owner, Andrea, opened to guests in April.

Most of Summerhaven has been rebuilt since the Aspen Fire burned much of the community — including the Alpine Lodge on the current Mount Lemmon Hotel site — in 2003.

Hafner said the new businesses will fill the last big hole left by the fire’s destruction in the middle of Summerhaven.

“Really that entire (area), what was two years ago an empty, vacant dirt lot in the center of town is going to be fully developed by next summer,” Hafner said. “One of the reasons we bought that 2-acre lot is, when people came to the community that’s the first thing you’d see, that big old empty piece of land, and if you want to build a nice little, welcoming mountain community, I think your main drag needs to be developed.”

Hafner, who is building the shops and will be landlord to the business owners, said the hotel business has been fair since the partial opening last spring, which came after monthslong construction delays due to COVID-19.

“It’s been OK — we’ve had our ups and downs, and we’ve learned a lot of lessons as business owners,” Hafner said, adding that dealing with the public during the high-stress time of the pandemic has presented its own challenges.

Mt. Lemmon Coffee Bean will be owned and operated by Debbie Weatherly, who has lived full time in Summerhaven for nearly 15 years.

Weatherly, who has operated a cabin-maintenance service for area landlords for the past 13 years and ran the former Mt. Lemmon Cafe for a brief period before it closed in 2009, said she always wanted to open a coffee shop.

“It’s (an idea that) has come and gone, and now that Justin has the Mount Lemmon Hotel, the opportunity is there, and I’m excited,” said Weatherly.

The Bean will be housed in a small cabin-style building and serve as a walk-up coffee bar for the Mount Lemmon Hotel, as well as giving local residents and day tourists more options to satisfy their caffeine fixes.

Weatherly said she plans to offer specialty coffee and espresso drinks, working with a roaster in Bisbee on a special espresso blend and offering rotating regional blends, as well as juices, lemonade and pastries.

Mt. Lemmon Scooters is being launched by part-time Summerhaven resident Sunni Moe, who built a leisure cabin in the community about three years ago with her husband Dale, pastor at a Lutheran church in Marana.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

The couple bought two electric scooters a couple of years ago to cruise around their neighborhood in Gladden Farms.

They ended up bringing them up Mount Lemmon and rode around discovering many paved roads and paths that would otherwise be inaccessible to many visitors because of health or time constraints.

The scooters evoked such positive reactions, Sunni Moe felt there could be a business there.

“When we would drive down the main road in Summerhaven, everybody would comment on how cool they were, or say ‘Where can I rent one?’ or ‘That looks like fun!’” said Sunni Moe, who also teaches piano and directs the music program at her church in Marana.

The Moes have bought a dozen sit-on, fat-tired scooters from Phat Scooters in Phoenix.

Scooter renters will be able to ride around Summerhaven, including along North Sabino Canyon Parkway about a mile to where it dead-ends at the Marshall Gulch trailhead and along other paved dirt roads throughout the community — not out on the General Hitchcock Highway, Sunni Moe said.

Scooter rentals by the hour will be available on the hotel property from May 1 to Nov. 1, from Thursday through Sunday for starters, Sunni Moe said.

She said after buzzing around on their own electric scooters, the couple has been able to map out an hourlong, safe loop for scooter renters, who will each get a short training session.

The scooters don’t require a motorcycle license, and the business didn’t require any special licensure, Moe said, noting that an electric-bike rental business operated in Summerhaven two summers ago without any issues.

“ADOT (the Arizona Department of Transportation) was curious, because they were envisioning Bird (stand-up urban) scooters out on Windy Point,” Moe said, but she said agency officials were supportive after learning the scooters would operate only in Summerhaven.

Hafner said the scooter business can meet a real need for people who have difficulty getting around but want to see more of the mountain community.

“For some people, walking for miles at 8,000-plus feet just isn’t an option,” he said.

Hafner said a cliffside ramada has already been built for the Mount Lemmon Hotel wedding venue, which is reserved for hotel guests as part of a wedding package.

The hotel will partner with the Sawmill Run restaurant across the street for food service and can coordinate plans for reception space at the adjacent Community Center.

Meanwhile, another hotel, the 16-room Mount Lemmon Lodge is under construction in Summerhaven on North Sabino Canyon Parkway south of the Mount Lemmon Hotel, with a grand opening planned for next spring.