NORTHAMPTON — This isn’t the first time Bruce Volz has channeled the future into Northampton. In 2017, the city business owner and developer sustainably built modernist housing units on Grove Street to “prove that modern architecture had a place.”
His latest venture is called DC Station, a “modern-day fueling station” for electric vehicles with a clean Scandinavian look. Located on Fulton Avenue in the former Pleasant Journey used car dealership site between a Florence Bank ATM and the NETA dispensary, DC Station is a 10-port electric vehicle fast-charging station covered by a solar canopy, along with a cafe retail building.
Volz intends to bring in a few eating options within the 4,800 square feet of retail space for users to grab a bite as they charge their vehicles. There will also be an education center to teach EV owners how to optimize their experience and to educate people curious about investing in electric transportation.
While traditional fueling takes a matter of minutes for gas vehicles, and convenience stores feature grab-and-go food options: however, Volz’s model breaks from the tradition to accommodate longer fueling stops for electric vehicles.
“I didn’t want to have just a convenience store where you can buy Doritos and Diet Cokes,” he said. “That’s fine, but I really wanted to take the concept and do something more, because you do have an hour.”
Volz envisions having a cafe or bakery open in the morning hours and a taco or pizza place in the evening, which will offer a contrast to the average charging experience.
“A lot of chargers are at the parking lot someplace with no amenities. So the idea is that there’s five bathrooms,” he said. “You charge, come in, get something, and at that point it makes the charging experience so much more pleasant than just sitting in your car.”
Volz has not fully realized this vision because he is still looking for two businesses to partner with.
While the station isn’t downtown, Volz said that its location at 5 Fulton Ave. is central — right off Interstate 91 at one of the city’s gateways with an “incredible amount” of traffic. The space is also located near two hotels and has more parking than downtown offers.
“Part of my goal was having a building that could provide food options because in this part of town there’s nothing really until you get to Roberto’s,” said Volz.
He has already seen an increase in people using the station since it opened last month, rising from about seven customers a day to an average of more than a dozen. The charging stations can be used at any time; however, the building’s hours are roughly from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
DC Station includes five Level III chargers — each with two ports — powered by the rooftop solar canopy designed and installed by PV Squared of Greenfield. Positioned above the EV stalls, the solar canopy directly offsets the station’s electricity demand.
EV education
The space isn’t simply about comfort and modern convenience. It’s also about education. Greg Goff, a personal car finder with 11 years of experience, has teamed up with Volz to lend his expertise for those who are EV-curious, or people who own an EV and want to learn more and optimize its use.
Over the course of his career, Goff became a “convert” to EVs himself after more than a decade of research that he will now offer the public free of charge.
“I think the current [Trump] administration has been pretty effective in changing the narrative that climate change isn’t an issue — we don’t need to worry about it,” said Volz. “That’s part of what Greg and I are trying to do in this space, which would be an education center to help people learn more about EVs, because there is a lot of misinformation out there in terms of so many topics.”
The education center is a spacious room with a grey and navy blue color palette and modern furniture. Screens on the walls will also have informational visuals about EVs.
In the future, Goff hopes to hold informational workshops and have dealerships bring in their cars for demonstrations.
“The revenue is hopefully going to come from advertising from the dealerships to put their stuff up here,” said Goff.
Perhaps one of the most common misconceptions about EVs is affordability, but Volz says car manufacturers are now prioritizing cheaper models.
“It’s not about bringing out $80,000 vehicles. They realize that in order to get a sort of mass appeal, they’ve got to get the cost below $45,000, $40,000 and below, preferably below $30,000,” he said.
One example of this happening in real time is a “Slate Truck,” which heads onto the market this year, he said. It is a basic model that can be customized, and prices begin at about $27,000 and have a range of 400 miles.
“And for most people, 150 miles really is fine,” said Volz, adding that the Slate model also doesn’t have six touch screens and even offers manual, roll-up windows.
Another misconception is that EVs are more liable to power off in traffic. Not true, said Goff.
“Range anxiety is real, but anxiety in any form is something that can be combated by information,” he said.
Saying that electric vehicles are 400% more efficient than traditional gas cars, he added, “it’s actually better in an electric car to be in start-stop than it is in gas cars.”
He also said air conditioning can run consistently for eight days on camping mode. “If you’re getting stuck in traffic for eight days, that’s a real problem. But most people aren’t.”
Another of the dozens of misconceptions Goff discussed concerns EV performance in the cold.
“They don’t work in the cold — not true. You lose 80% of your range in the cold — not true,” he said.
Goff says he is responsible for converting retired Williamsburg Police Chief John Cotton, who also served on the Northampton Department for 25 years, to EVs.
He is still in the honeymoon phase with his new Tesla that he bought in August, and even just the experience of buying it said was something out of the future. For one, there is no dealership. The self-driving vehicle “arrives” and all interactions with Tesla are done over the phone.
Since making the purchase, Cotton’s favorite feature has been self-driving mode. With a “slippery setting” built into the vehicle, he has felt safer driving in winter weather.
And he has been a consistent customer at DC Station over the past month.
“It’s actually a lot of fun,” said Cotton. “I’ve met people in the parking lot who are charging, and we’ll talk about our EVs.”
EV decline?
Volz began developing the site in 2023, and a ton has changed in the EV world since then. With Joe Biden as president, companies were seeing billions of dollars being funneled into EVs. Under the current administration, those subsidies have been erased.
Volz said that despite this, he doesn’t see electric vehicles going away. While he said that sales of EVs have slowed down, there is evidence that people still want the technology and car companies are not going to just walk away from investments in the product.
“These car companies, they’ve got billions of dollars invested in years of development. I don’t think they’re inclined to abandon it completely,” he said.
Volz did not provide a dollar amount for how much he invested in the station. “Expensive,” he said, is all he would say.
“This was an old gas station before Pleasant Journey, so the previous owner did a major cleanup. And there was a lot — 600 gallons. It was a major brownfield situation that added significantly to the cost,” said Volz. “And there’s a lot of features here. There’s solar on the roof, there’s solar on the canopy, an energy efficient heat pump … and it’s expensive to comply with all the current code.”
The majority of the costs for chargers were covered by a state program with National Grid. Lynkwell, one of the national leaders in charging infrastructure, picked up the remainder of those costs.
Kuhn Riddle Architects & Designers designed the new space, Keiter Construction did the work, and the site was laid out by Rachel Loeffler with Berkshire Design Group.