"Welcome to our new home," Dan Youngs said Saturday morning.
Youngs was speaking to the crowd of Lancaster-Lebanon Habitat for Humanity supporters and staff gathered at the entrance to the nonprofit's new headquarters at 1061 Manheim Pike in Manheim Township.
Its centerpiece is a large, state-of-the art ReStore home products store and donation center; Habitat's offices are upstairs.
Youngs, the chief financial officer and soon to be chief executive officer at the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, is Habitat's board treasurer. On Saturday, he joined Habitat President Andrew Szalay and other stakeholders for a ribbon-cutting ceremony a few minutes before the ReStore opened to the general public.
"We needed to take our mission to the next level," Youngs said.
Habitat ReStore locations sell a mix of building supplies, furniture, cabinetry, appliances and the like. At Lancaster's ReStore, about two-thirds of the items are donated; the remainder is purchased at a discount. In FY2023 (July 2022 through June 2023) the store posted $1.47 million in sales, Habitat spokeswoman Amy Balestier said.
Proceeds go toward Habitat's work of building and renovating affordable housing. Expanding ReStore thus advances the nonprofit's core mission of making homeownership accessible and "making first-time homebuyers," Szalay said.
At 33,180 square feet, the new ReStore is more than half again as big as its 19,760-square-foot predecessor, which operated for more than a quarter century at 155 Independence Court in East Lampeter Township.
Its 32-foot-high ceilings allow for shelving that is 24 feet high, versus 12 feet at the previous site, doubling available storage per square foot. That will make it easier to accept donations, as will the much larger sorting and processing area at the rear of the building.
The site has more than 150 parking spaces, versus fewer than 30 before.
Overlooking the ReStore retail space are Habitat's new offices, 5,236 square feet on the second floor at the front of the building. They are light and airy and provide plenty of elbow room: Habitat had long ago outgrown its existing offices at 443 Fairview Ave., in Lancaster, Szalay said.
Off to the side of the offices is a "construction loft," accessible via forklift, where Habitat can stage materials and equipment for its projects. The organization has offsite storage, too.
Saturday's ribbon-cutting featured the same giant red bow on the doors that Habitat uses to decorate new homeowners' homes. ReStore Manager Ben Mathus cut the ribbon, using a carpenter's saw donated to Habitat and signed by the nationwide organization's most famous volunteers, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, the former president and First Lady.
Habitat is leasing the building from The Deerin Cos., which owns the site and covered the construction cost. President Joe Deerin did not provide the cost, but said construction went "above and beyond" in many respects, including reinforcement of the slab foundation to accommodate the weight of inventory and heavy machinery.
Habitat had leased the East Lampeter Township ReStore site from the High Cos.; it is back on the market, awaiting a new tenant.
As for 443 Fairview Ave., Habitat owns that site and has plans to redevelop it as housing, Szalay said.
With Saturday's opening, all of Habitat's staff, just over 20 people, can be based at the same location for the first time. Szalay credited Mathus with shepherding 1061 Manheim Pike through a roughly two-year design and construction process.
Photos
(Photos: Tim Stuhldreher | One United Lancaster)
