1. What color is the handle?

Black. And on my Mk2 unit, when the sun hits it just right, it's a slightly different shade of black than the fascia.

2. What material is it made of?

Cast aluminum, painted black after casting. Hence the slight difference in color with the fascia.

3. Would the handle being included with the fascia and buttons be expected by purchasers?

No. The handle is known to be a separate part. Currently, there is no one offering alternate handle replacements, although I'd love to see 303 offer handles which match his new fascia.

Which really, to think about it, brings up a question: If you're wanting to make a fascia that's an exact replacement of the factory fascia, what's your target market? The only people who'd want that are those who have broken their original fascia or want to experiment with a dremel tool for some reason. I don't know if there would be many of those people. It might be more fun to come up with an alternate, like 303 has. You'd sell more of them that way.

The only trick is making it work with the existing handle. If you can't cast aluminum, a plastic handle probably would NOT work.

I sent off an inquiry to Denon (no address for Marantz) a few minutes ago. It will be interesting to see what the response is.

I would have skipped that step. We've got lots of people here on the BBS making alternate add-on stuff for the player such as the buttons and such, and it's never been an issue before. I'd "just do it" instead of worrying about what Denon thinks. It's such a small run, it isn't something where they'd be concerned about violating IP. Remember, there's only 4000 or so units in circulation, and only a tiny fraction of those owners would be in the market for purchasing your cast parts.