Harbor Bay Ventures unveiled The Howard, a 12-story student housing development at 401 E. Grand River Ave. in East Lansing, Michigan, that will become the tallest mass timber residential building in Michigan upon completion in 2028. Site work, including demolition of the property’s former building, began Sept. 14, 2026.
The 748-bed project sits directly across Grand River Avenue from Michigan State University and will include roughly 8,000 square feet of grade-level retail. Designed as a transit-oriented development, The Howard puts residents directly across the street from campus and along a CATA transit line. It is Harbor Bay’s third mass timber development, following INTRO Cleveland, INTRO Columbus — which topped out this month as the tallest mass timber student housing building in the U.S.
“Michigan has been out front on mass timber,” said Mark Bell, CEO, Harbor Bay Ventures. “East Lansing was the first city in the state to incentivize it through zoning, Michigan State runs one of the leading research programs in the country, and the state launched a Catalyst Program to move early projects forward. That alignment is rare, and it is why we are building here. The Howard is 748 beds at a scale this state has not seen, and we intend it to hopefully be the first of several.”
The Howard takes its name from Howard Ballein, who founded the Student Book Store on this site in 1960. The store served Michigan State students for 66 years under Howard and then his sons, Greg and Brad Ballein, before closing its Grand River Avenue location this summer and reopening nearby as Spartan Corner. Rather than sell the site, the Ballein family joined the project as a development partner, and remains part of the ownership group.
“My father began the Student Book Store on this corner in 1960, and for 66 years it was the first familiar face a lot of freshmen saw on Grand River,” said Greg Ballein, Student Book Store and development partner. “We could have sold the corner and walked away from it. Staying in as a partner means our family helps decide what comes next here, and putting my father’s name on the building felt like the right way to carry his legacy forward. Every time I drive down Grand River and see it going up, it will not feel like something we lost. It will feel like something we started.”
Harbor Bay is opening the site to Michigan State students through Project Classroom, its framework for using active developments as live teaching material. It’s a model the firm used previously with the MSU School of Planning, Design and Construction during development of the Center City District. Students in the school’s mass timber specialty will have access to site tours, weekly progress meetings, project-specific internships, capstone and research support, and guest lectures from the development, design, and construction teams.
The Howard will be built with mass timber, using CLT panels manufactured by SmartLam North America at its plant in Dothan, Ala., paired with cold-formed steel stud bearing walls. A domestic supply chain shortens lead times and keeps the value of the structure in American forestry and manufacturing jobs. The Howard will also be LEED Gold certified.
“This building carries Howard Ballein’s name, and we wanted the design to carry that same sense of respect, for him and for the block he spent 66 years on. That meant creating something that fits thoughtfully into downtown East Lansing’s context while still being unmistakably contemporary, and bringing mass timber down to the ground floor, where the public can see and touch it,” said Nathan Casteel, AIA, principal and design leader, DLR Group.
“Michigan only recently adopted the code provisions that make a building like this possible, so this is the state’s first attempt at mass timber residential construction at this height,” said Cameron Jacobson, AIA, senior associate and project architect, DLR Group. “That gave us a real opportunity to shape what that looks like, and we kept the timber exposed throughout the building wherever we could.”
“Student housing is treated as a commodity. Mass timber is how we break that. Exposed wood changes how a space feels the moment you walk in, and there is real research behind why. Michigan State students will be living in a category of housing that does not exist anywhere else in this state,” added Bell.
DLR Group is providing architecture and interior design services on the project. Additional project partners include Thomarios, general contractor; Forefront Structural Engineers, of Chicago; SmartLam North America, mass timber manufacturer; and Baker Concrete, concrete structure and foundations.
