Half Fast Subs, a favorite sandwich spot on the Hill in Boulder since it opened in 1996, is expected to reopen later this summer after a fire in the building temporarily closed the restaurant in January.

Owner Fred Liskowski said he’s confident the shop will reopen for business in August or September.

“People want us to reopen, people are excited about it,” Liskowski said. “It’s just a matter of time at this point.”

Half Fast Subs, 1215 13th St., was completely flooded on Jan. 5 after firefighters responded to a structure fire in the building that occurred above the sandwich shop.

Liskowski said there was an electrical fire in the attic above the third story of the building, and the fire department came in through the roof and pumped water in for about an hour and a half. The fire was contained to the attic.

That water came down through all the apartments in the building and eventually to the sandwich shop and the basement. Liskowski said there was “a significant amount of water” that caused extensive water damage throughout the roughly 120-year-old building.

He said that crews have done a lot of electrical work in the past six months, in addition to construction, to repair the water damage. Initially, he hoped to be open in June but realized more work was needed before it could reopen.

“It made most sense to replace all the electrical, and that slowed us down a bit,” Liskowski said.

He said the shop may do some soft openings in the beginning before a full-blown grand opening, since he anticipates having a significant portion of new staff who will need to be trained. The fall is typically the shop’s busiest time of year, with new students from the university in town and football games.

“I expect that a lot of employees will have moved on to new jobs,” Liskowski said. “… For employees, it’s been financially difficult.”

Liskowski started a GoFundMe page to raise money to generate cash for the shop’s employees during the closure.

The page has raised $7,822 as of Monday out of a $15,000 goal. He said the employees are his main concern, since insurance is covering a lot of the costs associated with the fire.

Quite a few employees told Liskowski that they wanted to come back, but he said he also understands that when the reopening was moved from June to August that people might have needed to find other jobs and move on.

“I do think they’re the ones that are suffering the biggest financial hit here,” Liskowski said.

He said hopefully, within the next few weeks, he can nail down a date for reopening.

“We definitely want to celebrate the reopening and get everyone back in here,” he said.