NORTHAMPTON — The public got an up-close look at the future Community Resilience Hub last week when officials opened the downtown building currently under renovation for public viewing. A rendering of what the exterior of the former First Baptist Church at 298 Main St will look like was later unveiled at a meeting that followed at nearby Edwards Church.

The public tour was the second of three planned public meetings about the Resilience Hub. Once complete sometime in late 2025, the hub will serve as a multipurpose center providing a range of community services, including as a shelter for the homeless population and during climate emergencies. It will also provide a regular meeting space and serve as headquarters for several community agencies, including the newly formed Division of Community Care.

Ben Weil, the interim director for the city’s Climate Action and Project Administration department, said the hub could be used as an emergency center during any kind of severe weather such as a blizzard or a heat wave, with the building having the capacity to maintain power and cooling during outages using a generator and a heat pump cooling system.

“We’re not going to get just kind of extreme weather, but we’re also going to get emergencies,” Weil said. “We get major floods, heat waves, and maybe that coincides with power outages or destructive storms. And whole portions of neighborhoods … people have to have some place to go and they need heat or cooling and hot water and showers and laundry.”

As an example, Weil cited a major snowstorm in Northampton on Halloween in 2011 that resulted in widespread power outages, lasting as long as nine days in some areas. A place like the Resilience Hub, he said, could serve as an emergency shelter for vulnerable populations during such an event. Proper ventilation is essential in accommodating a significant number of people, Weil said.

“Let’s say you have a bunch of people who need to go someplace. They may need to charge their phones, they need a place that operates a kitchen, there are various reasons why you might not be able to do some basic things in the city,” Weil said. “You want to get a bunch of people there and they all need fresh air.”

Plans cal for the first floor, located in the basement of the building, to host the hub’s kitchen and dining room, with the main second floor being a large community hall area. Offices for organizations like the Division of Community Care will be on the third floor, which was not made available during the public tour on May 1.

The community hall area currently features an elevated stage that was placed there by the building’s former owner, Eric Suher, who had planned turning the space into a banquet hall and performance center before ultimately abandoning those plans. City officials said they were still unsure whether the stage would be included in the final version of the center.

Dorrie Brooks, an architect with the firm Jones Whitsett Architects, said the facility could “comfortably” support 30 beds in the case of an emergency. Andy Pelis, the chief of Northampton Fire Rescue, said it was likely the facility could support even more than that.

“During the pandemic, we took over the Northampton High School gymnasium and we had I believe 55 cots that were separated even farther than we normally would just because of COVID,” Pelis said. “I don’t know the exact size of the [Resilience Hub] space, but I will comfortably say more than 30 [beds], I would say you get between 50 and 75.”

Pelis, also recalling the 2011 blizzard, said that when the city tried opening a shelter on that day, only one person showed up.

“If this is a really inviting and great place, people will be more comfortable during an emergency to come here and stay warm,” he said.

Though the hub has been planned for some time, the city has yet to release an official figure on the total costs of converting the building. Alan Wolf, the mayor’s chief of staff, said during the meeting that the city was still working on producing an exact cost for the project.

“We’re just not ready yet to say this is how much. And it’s obviously a very sensitive conversation given the context of budgeting in the city,” Wolf said. “We want to make sure that when we present this information that we’re really ready to go.”

The last of three planned public meetings for the Resilience Hub will take place on June 5 at 6 p.m. at Edwards Church. Titled “Connections & Collaborations: Envisioning Comprehensive Care,” it plans to focus on various partnerships between the city and other community organizations in building and operating the Resilience Hub.

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