The East Lansing City Council voted in favor of "The Howard," a 12-story apartment building at its July 21 meeting. (From agenda packet)

East Lansing City Council Approves One Downtown High-Rise, Denies Another

The East Lansing City Council gave the green light to one downtown high-rise apartment building and turned down another at its meeting Tuesday night.

The City Council approved Harbor Bay Ventures’ plans to build a 12-story apartment on the 400 block of Grand River Avenue, where the Student Book Store and other commercial businesses currently reside. 

A request from Tareen Development Partners to build a 10-story apartment at 530 Albert Avenue, where the Bailey Street surface parking lot currently sits, was denied by the City Council at the same meeting. 

“The Howard” will be East Lansing’s latest large downtown apartment building. 

The 12-story apartment unanimously approved by the City Council will be named “The Howard” after longtime East Lansing businessman Howard Ballein. The Ballein family, which owns the Student Book Store, is partnering with Harbor Bay on the project.

A graphic showing where developers plan to build The Howard in downtown East Lansing. (From agenda packet)

The planned building includes 296 apartments of studio, one, two and three bedroom units to house 748 residents. The building is proposed to include space for two restaurants, a terrace area, residential lounge, library and leasing office. It is expected that residents will pay between $1,200 and $2,200 per bed, according to the site plan. 

The building will be made of mass timber, a type of construction that is made of thick, compressed layers of wood. The city previously put in place an incentive system to encourage mass timber constructions. 

The apartment was recommended by the Downtown Development Authority and Planning Commission. 

The existing building will be demolished to build the new apartment building. Construction is expected to be completed in July of 2028, according to the site plan. 

During public comment of Tuesday’s meeting, developers said the apartment was crafted through community feedback and is in-line with the city’s goals of adding dense housing near Michigan State University’s campus. 

A street level rendering of “The Howard.” (From agenda packet)

The main concern voiced by residents at prior meetings has been parking, as the proposal does not include on-site parking and homeowners worry tenants will use nearby neighborhoods to park. 

As a condition of approval, the City Council is requiring developers to lease 224 spaces from city parking lots, which is more than the 157 spaces developers proposed leasing. 

The council rejects a 10-story apartment proposed for downtown. 

The City Council rejected a proposal to build an apartment where the Bailey Street parking lot currently sits, citing concerns about the proposal’s compatibility with nearby properties, parking and traffic congestion. 

The proposed building is 10 stories with 205 units to house 436 tenants. The proposal was recommended by the Downtown Development Authority and Planning Commission. 

A rendering of the 10-story apartment building proposed to be built at the site of the Bailey Street Parking Lot that the City Council rejected. (From agenda packet)

Business owners that operate near the location spoke in opposition to the proposal at Tuesday’s meeting, saying the loss of parking would hurt their businesses. 

“We have a kind of clientele that is carrying heavy stuff,” said Jon Howard, owner of Flat, Black and Circular. “They don’t want to [look] around for a parking structure blocks away to haul heavy records back and forth.”

Bob Metzger, whose family owns about two-thirds of the Bailey Street Parking Lot, said former City Manager George Lahanas and former Planning, Building and Development Director Tom Fehrenbach told his family in 2022 that the city wanted the parking lot developed and would not enter another long-term parking lease. Since, the city has been leasing the lot on a year-to-year basis. 

In 2023, the City Council rejected a proposal to build a five-story workforce housing apartment building at the site. Business owners also expressed concern about a lack of parking with that project. 

In 2025, Tareen Development Partners proposed a 13-story apartment with two stories of public parking. The proposal made its way to the City Council in March, but developers said building the parking and meeting a city requirement that 25% of units be dedicated to moderate income housing or another cause that diversifies the downtown housing stock was prohibitively expensive. 

After the council deferred a vote on the initial proposal, developers reworked plans to be the 10-story apartment the council considered Tuesday night. 

During public comment at Tuesday’s meeting, Metzger expressed frustration with the city’s approval process. 

“We’ve brought you projects with parking, we’ve brought you projects without parking, it seems like we can’t do the right thing,” he said. “Economic development is supposed to be a team sport, we’ve been good-faith partners for a long time.”

Metzger said his family would be terminating its parking agreement with the city as of Oct. 1. 

“We agonized over that decision, but we feel like we’ve been given no other course,” he said. 

The council voted 4-1 to deny the project, with Councilmember Steve Whelan the lone vote against the motion.