Nearly two months after a wall of water from a burst fire line flooded Diagonal Plaza, business is starting to trickle back into the north Boulder shopping center.

Some tenants of the indoor mall at 2850 Iris Ave. reopened their shops this week and several others are readying their businesses for similar returns.

It might take a couple more weeks for normalcy to return to the center, but the initial reopenings were a welcome occurrence at the 25,000-square-foot center, which has been shuttered since Aug. 24, said Larry Burnett, owner of the indoor mall.

In the late-evening of Aug. 24, a sprinkler system fire line burst beneath the Department of Motor Vehicles’ office, creating a “Boulder Creek”-like surge of water down the hallway, said Bryan McCormack, who operates Boulder Organic Vapor at the center and was the first to report the flooding.

“The water just ran and ran and ran, basically,” he said, noting that the shut-off valve was located under a neighboring street.

When officials evaluated the water damage, Burnett was told it could take four months for the mall to return to operation. It’s now looking like two-and-a-half months, he said.

“It could’ve been a lot worse, but it’s been way better than I thought it would be initially,” he said.

For business owners such as McCormack, a chief concern involves regaining the steady business — the customers whose routine stops to the plaza were interrupted for two months, he said.

“Hopefully we’ll have a coming out party” when the remaining businesses reopen, McCormack said. “People are a little unsure. When you look in here, it looks kind of like it’s a construction site.”

On Wednesday, boxes, paint trays and buckets were piled in the middle section of the mall near the benches and indoor trees. The majority of the foot-traffic in the center consisted of tradesmen, eager tenants and a few fortuitous passers-by who encountered a DMV office with a six-person wait.

The DMV office was open temporarily on Wednesday so officials could conduct a systems test, said Sarah Werner, a spokeswoman for the state’s division of motor vehicles.

An official reopening date for the Boulder DMV has not been set, she said.

“We are still doing final clean-up and system testing to make sure that we’re ready when we do open,” she said.

A couple shops down from the DMV, Bob Binsfeld unlocked the door to Rocky Mountain Time Zone, a business he has operated for 25 years. Binsfeld squeezed into his shop to prepare for a day of unpacking more than a dozen boxes.

Binsfeld’s business, which was insured, emerged relatively unscathed. A few watches got wet, he said.

“But those can be repaired,” he said.

His intention is to open his shop next Tuesday.

“It’s one of those things you never expected . . ..a flood when you’re up 4 feet (off the ground),” he said.

Kathy Hall, owner of Swim Wearhouse, said she was thankful that the water came from the ground up, as opposed to from above. As a result, her shop had about an inch of water.

During the mitigation period, she relied on website sales. The efforts of property manager Burnett were beneficial to her shop reopening quickly, she said.

“I think I haven’t lost that much,” she said.

September turned out to be a record month for Arrowhead Awards and Boulder Trophy Shop, which operated temporarily out of its manufacturing facility and owner Bob Stacy’s home in Longmont.

“We lost some walk-ins,” he said. “Our big customers found us.”

Even with the boom in business, Stacy never veered from the decision to reopen the shop at Diagonal Plaza, where it has operated for 20 years.

He said he’s hopeful that his neighboring tenants, notably the restaurants, will be able to reopen soon.

“It’s still going to be a while,” Stacy said. “There’s so much they have to do to clean up.”

Contact Camera Business Writer Alicia Wallace at 303-473-1332 or wallacea@dailycamera.com