City Council Defers Votes on Graduate Rooftop Bar Expansion, Large Downtown Apartment

The East Lansing City Council delayed voting on a couple of large downtown proposals at its June 16 meeting, as the fate of a 12-story downtown apartment and expansion to The Graduate’s rooftop bar is now scheduled to be decided at the July 21 council meeting. 

A vote on each proposal – which have both been in the works going back to last year – was delayed after staff members said they had not had time to review plan revisions submitted shortly before the meeting.

Twelve-story apartment “The Howard” could house close to 750 in building off Grand River Avenue. 

The council did not take up a vote on a large student apartment building planned to be built off Grand River Avenue on the block that currently hosts the Student Book Store. 

The apartment, named “The Howard” after longtime East Lansing businessman Howard Ballein, has been amended since it was proposed last year. The size of the building was shrunk from 15 stories to 12 and from more than 900 beds to 748. If approved, the apartment will contain 296 units of studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments. The price per bed is expected to be $1,200 to $2,200, according to the application. 

The ground floor would include space for a restaurant, cafe and undefined amenity space. The second floor would include a library, leasing office and terrace, according to the site plan. 

The apartment has been recommended by the city’s Planning Commission and Downtown Development Authority, as commission members and speakers at meetings have said housing is needed downtown and praised the mass timber design of the proposed building. 

The project has also drawn opposition from some residents at meetings, who question the fit of another large building downtown and worry a lack of on-site parking will put a strain on neighborhoods. Developers are proposing they lease 157 unused spaces from city lots for residents. 

The City Council decided to defer a vote on the project to July 21 after Senior Planner Alycia Reiten said developers submitted a new set of plans days before the meeting and staff had not fully reviewed them. 

While developers would still be required to meet relevant standards and the Planning Commission attached 30 conditions to its recommendation the council would likely include in its motion, Mayor Erik Altmann said he is not comfortable advancing such a large project without staff reviewing the latest plans. 

“I am very concerned when we’re talking about a 12-story building in our downtown and we’re characterizing it as a moving target,” he said. 

Altmann moved to delay a vote on the project until the council’s July 21 meeting, a motion that was unanimously supported. 

Councilmember Kerry Ebersole Singh said a constant theme of her time on council has been a need for East Lansing to standardize its development requirements to provide clarity for developers and staff. 

“I came into this meeting wanting to approve [the apartment] with conditions tonight, but recognizing some of the moving pieces and some of the concerns expressed, at least from this table, it feels like we may need to take more time,” she said. 

The Graduate could expand its popular rooftop bar. 

The East Lansing City Council is set to decide next month if the Graduate Hotel can expand its rooftop bar and restaurant area to more than double its occupancy.

The Graduate Hotel opened in the summer of 2021, featuring 10 floors, 194 guest rooms, a café on the ground floor and the Graduate Rock Bar on the tenth floor, which has a rooftop restaurant and bar with an outdoor space overlooking downtown East Lansing and the Michigan State University campus.

The hotel is proposing to expand its rooftop Rock Bar to more than double the permitted occupancy from 96 to 199. When the proposal was initially floated last year, bar management explained the expansion would be to add a private dining area and accommodate events. 

“It is very common that we’ll get phone calls twice a week, ‘I was at [The Graduate]. I had a fantastic time. I would love to host a private birthday party or a private graduation dinner,’” The Graduate General Manager Lee Cote said at a meeting last year. “But because of our current occupancy and how busy the space currently is, it is very rare that we can find a time during normal business hours to make that work.”

The rooftop bar boasts weekly live music and trivia and hosts hoards of MSU fans on gamedays, with multiple TVs and a birdseye view of Spartan Stadium. The Graduate Rock Bar has also been the backdrop to large gatherings and events, including a campaign stop for the 2024 Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign where her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gathered with students to try and pull the college age vote in Michigan.

That campaign event in 2024 left The Graduate Rock Bar at capacity with many students and hopeful attendees turned away.

Last year, The Graduate sought to expand occupancy for the rooftop restaurant and bar from its current 96 occupant limit to 268 occupants by eliminating a guest room and permitting some expansion efforts. The East Lansing Planning Commission and Downtown Development Authority gave unanimous support for the expansion. However, some members of the City Council at the time were not amiable to adding more occupancy to bars and said there have been issues with parking at the hotel.

After being met with apprehension at a public hearing before the City Council last year, developers pulled plans for the rooftop bar expansion, now returning with a revised version. The new proposed expansion is smaller than the last – down from an occupancy of 268 to 199. Reiten said the developers submitted three floor plans with slightly different occupancy levels based on the event being accommodated, and occupancy may increase to 200 or 207. 

As was the case with The Howard, Reiten said staff received new plans late in the process that she has not reviewed yet. The council then decided unanimously to defer a vote on the rooftop bar expansion until July 21. 

The Graduate is working on a separate proposal to add valet parking. That plan will not be ready for the July 21 meeting and Altmann asked staff to draft a resolution to deny the expansion to the bar on the grounds that it will increase traffic congestion in the area.