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.”…