Two Massive Apartment Complexes Are Proposed for Downtown East Lansing. Where Would Everyone Park?

A pair of massive apartment complexes that would reshape the skyline of downtown East Lansing were presented to the city’s Planning Commission and Downtown Development Authority at meetings this week.

Separate developers are proposing a 13-story apartment building be built at the site that is currently the Bailey Street Parking Lot at 530 Albert Avenue and a 15-story apartment complex is proposed for the block on Grand River Avenue that currently features the Student Book Store.

Developers have said that more housing is needed downtown, as Michigan State University continues to grow its enrollment, creating demand for housing near campus. City officials expressed confusion and concern about parking plans for each proposal.

Zoning rules in the downtown area prohibit parking from being part of downtown development unless special permission is provided by the city. However, existing downtown parking would be further strained if no new parking is added. Current plans for the 530 Albert project include two levels of parking, more than 80 total spaces, but these spaces are public and not reserved for residents of the complex. This project is proposed to include 236 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments to house 505 residents.

The proposal for the Grand River Avenue apartment, which is called “The Howard,” includes leasing 200 parking spaces from city lots and having more than 70 spaces in an underground lot. The Howard is proposed to house 911 people spread out across 361 units.

If both complexes are approved, new demand for downtown parking passes would likely outpace supply, Principal Planner Landon Bartley said 215 passes are available now. In response, the city has had conversations with Michigan State University to consider providing downtown student residents with parking opportunities at the campus “commuter lot” at Farm Lane and Mount Hope Road, more than a mile drive from the proposed apartments.

“There are a lot of little issues and deficiencies with the site plan,” Bartley said. “And if you ask why we are bringing this to you now, it’s the same question with [The Howard] application. We bring an application to you regardless of whether or not we find it to be complete. So there are some outstanding items still, but we can generally count that by the time they come back to you, they should complete this. By the time they get to the point of a council vote, they must be complete.”

Without adequate on-site parking or enough spaces available to lease in city lots, planning commissioners worried about the city’s capacity to take on more cars.

“I understand the conversations with the university, but I live in East Lansing,” Planning Commissioner Chuck Overbey said when discussing the Albert Avenue proposal. “East Lansing is a student parking lot, and there are going to be a significant number of students who will have cars. I’m just concerned about the capacity of the city to absorb the cars that the students will have and of the university to help us out. If I lived there as a student, I probably wouldn’t want to have to go to the commuter lot to go to the grocery store.”

Bartley told Overbey that, from the developer’s perspective, students could walk to Campbell’s Market or Target to shop and would not necessarily need a car. He noted, however, that it was a mindset shift that could take time.

Harbor Bay, the developer of The Howard, brought expert testimony to the Planning Commission meeting.

Daniel Shoag, an economist at Case Western Reserve University, was hired by Harbor Bay to study the East Lansing housing market and attended both meetings to share his findings.

Shoag said housing prices in East Lansing have skyrocketed in recent years, and the average price of rent in East Lansing has grew by 13% between February 2024 and September 2025. While The Howard is proposing expensive, market-rate housing, Shoag said adding this type of housing would have a ripple effect.

He cites recent research that identities a “moving chain” that happens when new developments are constructed.  The example given is that 100 new market-rate units will lead 45-70 individuals to move out of below-mediam-income tracts and 17-39 people to move out of bottom-quintile-income tracts within five years.

“New construction absorbs higher-income demand and frees up older, more moderately priced housing for middle- and lower-income households,” Shoag’s report said.

The Howard has requested the city create a fee-in-lieu program, allowing it to pay into the city instead of complying with a city ordinance mandates that 25% of units in new downtown developments be designated for low- to moderate-income housing, or fit another designation that diversifies the area’s housing stock.

Shoag also said the development would provide 987 local jobs during construction and represent a $127 million investment.

Discussion at the DDA meeting was limited, with few commissioners questioning aspects of the proposals beyond parking.