As he packs up to move Delta Iron Works Inc. from its longtime home on Detroit's east side to make way for the Solanus Casey Center expansion, Chris Manos is making a mental list of a few things he'll take to remember the place.
There's the walk-in safe that came from the venerable Berry Brothers Paint and Varnish Co, a company that operated nearby after opening in 1860. He'll also take the heavy, scratched-up front door with "Delta Iron" painted on it that he helped his father make when he was in high school when the company added a second addition to the building.
And then there's the old wooden door to the company's small upstairs office, which will be reinstalled at the entry to the office in a new building he plans to build a block away.
"I've been going in and out (of it) since I was coming down here as a kid," Manos said.
The painted door with nicks here and there reminds him of his father, who started the company in the 1957 and moved a few years later to the Meldrum site, and all of the time the two spent at the factory and in the office, Manos said. The ticket-window door came from buddies who were demolition contractors and got the door from a building they were tearing down.
It's a window to everything the family and company have come through and to the future as Manos prepares to begin construction on Delta's new building.
"When I am away from the shop for a while, either on vacation, a long weekend or whatever, I always feel like I'm back once I walk through that door," Manos said.
The foundation's namesake, Art Van Furniture founder Art Van Elslander, made a $20 million gift in late 2017, less than two months before his death, to fund the first expansion and renovation of the Solanus Casey Center since its 2002 addition to the campus of the 1883 St. Bonaventure Monastery on Detroit's east side.
Casey, an American-born Capuchin friar, was the greeter at another door, this one to the monastery, from 1926-1946.
He would greet those who came, pray with them and provide sandwiches to those who were hungry. Soon, hundreds of people started coming to the monastery when word got out that his prayers of intercession were helping to heal people.
Casey died in Detroit in 1957 and is entombed at the Solanus Casey Center where his few possessions, including his robe and a notebook with notations on his prayers for intercession on visitors' behalf, are on display.
In May 2017, 35 years after the effort to declare Casey a saint first began, the Roman Catholic Church's leader, Pope Francis, announced that Casey had met the requirements for beatification when a school teacher from Panama with a genetic skin disease was miraculously cured after praying at his tomb in 2012.
Casey was beatified at a Mass held at Detroit's Ford Field in November 2017, putting him on a path to sainthood.
"The need was there to look at the (Solanus Casey Center) with fresh eyes and thinking toward the future where some day he could be Saint Solanus Casey," said Tim Hinkle, public relations director for the Solanus Casey Center and its parent organization, the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph.
"That's what we're envisioning with the center, and that's kind of where Art Van (Elslander) was coming from, thinking about hospitality where you can get a sandwich, a cup of coffee ... meditate and pray in a beautiful space outside."
The expansion is focused on making Solanus Casey Center a place of prayer, pilgrimage and reflection, providing spiritual nourishment for all seeking it, regardless of their religion or station in life, the Rev. David Preuss, director of the Solanus Casey Center, told Crain's in 2017.
The Delta Iron property was key to making the outdoor space a reality.
With help from the A.A. VanElslander Foundation, the center bought the Delta Iron Works property in 2018 from Manos for an undisclosed amount and has been leasing it back to the company since then.
Manos wouldn't have moved his company if he hadn't been asked because he loves the neighborhood and his Capuchin neighbors. "(But) I'm definitely OK with moving," he said.
Delta will get a new building just a block away, and the Capuchins will be able to proceed with their project, Manos said.
"To me, that's a perfect deal. I see it as a blessing to everyone involved."
While Delta packs up, parts of the Solanus Casey Center expansion and renovation have begun.
Last month, work began to dismantle walls in the center's former votive chapel area and the nearby rosary garden. Construction of a 9,100-square-foot, two-story building to house the center's relocated offices, a new gift shop and a new cafe with outdoor seating is set to begin within the next couple of weeks and to wrap up by the end of 2021, said Jaime Rae Turnbull, who is managing the Solanus Casey Center expansion project on behalf of the VanElslander Foundation.
The previous gift shop in the center will be converted to offices, and several new confessionals, improvement to the reception area and construction of a connector from the existing building to the new gift shop and café are also planned.
Hamilton Anderson is serving as architect and the Albert M. Higley Co. as general contractor on the center's expansion project.
The internal building projects are beginning as the center wraps up construction of a 65-spot parking lot at Kercheval and Mt. Elliot, with brickwork, lighting and fencing done this season. Final landscaping, including storm-water bioswales, will go in this coming spring, Turnbull said.
With Delta vacating its old building, the Solanus Casey Center plans to begin clearing the site during the first quarter of next year, Turnbull said.
Final designs are still being completed, but the open, outdoor area will include reflection spaces, a pavilion with an altar and flexible seating for 1,500 people for Masses, other public events and picnics, and seating to grab a cup of coffee or a sandwich, she said.
The entire expansion project is on track to be completed by the end of 2022, she said, five years after it was first announced.
"I'm very excited about (the Solanus Casey Center's) project and their growth. They are such a wonderful group," Manos said.
With Delta's move now imminent, Manos is finalizing a lease for nearby temporary space for its steel fabrication operations and staff of five. He declined to say where until everything is final.
The leased space will serve as a temporary site while the company's new home is built. Delta is in the process of obtaining final approvals from the city and completing the design for the new 10,000-square-foot building a block down Meldrum, between St. Paul and Lafayette, on land the center acquired from the city. The new location will be just over half the site of its current building, Manos said, noting a smaller footprint will better meet the company's evolving production needs.
Manos said the hope is to break ground on the new building before year's end and to complete it by fall.
The exact details are still being worked out with JMP Design and Build Inc., which is serving as architect and general contractor on the new building, Manos said. But the new site will include office and industrial space, a brick front and an old iron gate circa 1900 purchased from a New York company to bring it character, he said, along with the safe, the company's front door and his father's office door.
"That to me is continuing the business through that (office) door," Manos said.
"I'd like to keep walking through it."
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