NORTHAMPTON — A long-awaited plan to develop the prominent Elm Street property where the former St. Mary’s Church is located downtown will come before the Planning Board on Thursday night, as developers are poised to outline their plans for a project that will include 71 market-rate apartments, a future cafe and a 37-car garage.

The project, led by Sunwood Builders of Amherst, has been in motion since the company acquired the property from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in last March for $1.1 million. The diocese closed the church in 2010. The project itself is estimated to cost around $24 million, according to Shaul Perry, Sunwood’s owner and founder.

In a narrative submitted to the Planning Board by Kuhn Riddle Architects & Designers, which has produced renderings of the proposed building, the project matches the city’s goals for downtown. The project’s location at the corner of State and Elm streets put it in good company, with the other corners occupied by the DA Sullivan building, the Academy of Music and Edwards Church.

“It meshes with the City’s goals of densifying downtown, increasing foot traffic to local businesses, and helping minimize the impact of cars on downtown,” the narrative states. “The building also includes two planned restaurants and cafe spaces that engage the street and invite pedestrian activity onto the site.”

The new building displayed in the rendering is broken into three connecting elements within the project description. One element is a section of the building four stories tall, with the first two stories reserved for spaces for a future restaurant and cafe along with an outdoor dining porch. The upper two stories would contain four two-bedroom townhouse units each.

A second element is a larger five-story structure with a parking garage on the first floor, containing both van-accessible and electric vehicle spaces. The other four floors contain 63 apartments, ranging in size from studios to two-bedrooms.

These two elements are connected by the third element, a three-story structure with a roof deck, four studio apartment and a second entrance to the parking garage.

Other amenities include electric vehicle charging stations, a laundry room for each floor and a bicycle storage room that can accommodate up to 24 bikes. In keeping with the city’s recent ordinance banning fossil fuels in new construction, the buildings will be all-electric, heated with roof-mounted air source heat pumps, documents submitted to the city show.

Plans also show an intention to convert the church rectory into a 17-room inn. There appears to be no intention to tear down the St. Mary’s Church building itself and the plans note the potential for future renovation, but not as part of the current permit application.

Because the property falls within the city’s Elm Street Historic District, Sunwood first must acquire a Local Historic District Certificate of Appropriateness, in addition to a permit from the Planning Board, before beginning any construction.

During a meeting held on Jan. 27, the city’s Historical Commission voted to postpone approving the certificate until after the Planning Board hearings.

“This is such an important structure in the streetscape of Northampton, so we want to be in alignment with the Planning Board and get their input before we make a final decision,” commission Chair Martha Lyons said during the meeting.

Lyons also said that rather than conform to existing architectural styles, the commission would be looking more for something that compliments the district, which stretches along a section of Elm Street next to Smith College.

“One of the things that we have to be careful of is to try to recreate history in our buildings ... I don’t think that really does a lot of justice to the existing historic buildings,” Lyons said. “One of the roles of contemporary architecture is to bring out the historic character of the other buildings, rather than to try to, in a sort of false way, reproduce them.”

Joe Blumenthal, another member of the commission, expressed a more critical view of the project in an email sent in December to Planning & Sustainability Director Carolyn Misch, a copy of which was included in documents submitted to the Planning Board.

“While I am delighted to see that the new owners have a plan to save St. Mary’s Church and make good use of its surrounding property, and am happy with the concept of denser development in the central business district, I am disappointed in the design of the building,” Blumenthal wrote. “At first glance it reminds me of the large new buildings in downtown Amherst, not terribly interesting and perhaps more appropriate for development along a suburban highway than a downtown.”

Thursday’s Planning Board meeting begins at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers at 212 Main St., with the public also able to participate remotely via Zoom.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.