NORTHAMPTON — A busy commercial spot at one of the gateways to the city, vacant since the spring of 2023, will soon be home to a cafe retail building and 10 electric vehicle charging stations covered by a solar canopy.

Plans for the 5 Fulton Ave. site near the Conz-Pleasant streets roundabout, which for years housed the Pleasant Journey used car dealership until it closed in April 2023, call for construction of a 4,800-square-foot building facing Fulton Avenue and the development of the electric vehicle charging complex on the opposite side of the site closer to the parcel where Florence Bank operates an ATM.

The project is being developed by Bruce Volz through a company called DC/Coffee. Volz bought the property late last year under the name Alloy LLC.

“This project is Bruce’s effort at trying to do his part to leave the planet a better place by helping to make electric vehicle ownership a more viable option, not only for the residents of Northampton but also for the many visitors to Northampton or those who may be just making a trip here,” Aelan Tierney, president of Kuhn Riddle Architects & Designers, told the Planning Board at its June 27 meeting. The board approved the project unanimously at that meeting.

Volz, who has driven an electric vehicle since 2016, stressed that the EV station and the photovoltaic solar canopy atop it are the highlights of the project.

He said the Level III chargers — each of the five stations will have two charging ports — will provide a “quick turnaround” ranging from about 30 minutes up to an hour depending on the size of the car batteries. That’s much faster than Level II chargers in place in other parts of the city, where it can take hours to charge up a battery, though several car dealerships also have the faster charging stations.

“For me, this all started with increasing the availability of Level III stations,” Volz said. “Then I starting thinking what else would I want nearby if I was traveling and had to stop for 30 minutes to an hour.”

He’s hopeful there will be enough demand in EV usage to offset the cost of the development.

“What they are saying is 4-6% usage for the first year and then it goes up as hopefully more EVs are adopted,” Volz told the Planning Board. “I hope that there is a big demand for the chargers because that’s where I potentially make money. The cost of developing this site is not going to be covered by the building ... so it does have to be based on the chargers.”

Volz is contracting with a company called Livingston for the installation and operation of the EV stations, and the solar arrays that will feed the chargers will be installed by PV Squared out of Greenfield.

The building, meanwhile, would be divided into three commercial spaces — two spots on both ends that would be leased to food service businesses and a center space that would feature grab-and-go prepackaged food. There would also be patio areas on the east and west sides of the building, which will also include rooftop solar panels.

Volz said he hopes to fill the retail spaces with a coffee and bakery cafe on one end and a pizza or related restaurant on the other, with a separate space in the middle for quick purchases.

“Being right off 91 is a big plus,” Volz said.

Tierney said the back of the building facing away from Fulton Avenue would have a common walkway that enters into a vestibule area with access to shared bathrooms and vending machines.

“It’s a very compact building,” she said. “Bruce really wanted to have a clean, modern Scandinavian look for this building.”

The building will feature a geothermal heating and cooling as well, Volz said.

Two members of the public spoke in favor of the project, including resident Benjamin Spencer.

“I think it’s really exciting and I think it’s a great example of the gateway district form-based zoning living up to the goals,” he said. “This is an improvement. This is a big improvement and it’s really exciting to see. This is less impervious surfaces. This is multiple uses. This is a streetscape that is pedestrian-friendly.”

Volz anticipates the project will take nine months to a year to complete.

Chad Cain can be reached at ccain@gazettenet.com.