We are proud to announce that Owen-Ames-Kimball Co. (O-A-K) is opening its first office in the greater Lansing market, marking another step in our thoughtful growth across Michigan.

We have signed a lease on new office space at 1595 W. Lake Lansing Road in East Lansing, and plan to formally open the location at the end of summer. O-A-K is headquartered in downtown Grand Rapids, with additional offices in Caledonia, Kalamazoo, and Traverse City, Michigan, as well as Naples and Fort Myers, Florida, and Castle Rock, Colorado. We employ 250 people across all of our locations and recorded $531 million in total revenue in 2025, according to Crain's Grand Rapids Business.

Our success has always been rooted in the expertise, judgment, relationships, and commitment of our people. We have been building in Michigan for 135 years, and that history reflects, more than anything, the strength of the people and partnerships behind every project we take on.

"Most of our clients like to have somebody local," said Frank Stanek, PE, President and CEO of O-A-K. "Working in the community, living in the community, and having offices in the community was really essential for us. Finding the right person to start up that office was also a key essential."

Expanding into Central Michigan is a natural next step. Clients O-A-K has worked with for years are active in the region, employees already live there, and trade partner and community relationships are already in place. Opening an office in East Lansing lets O-A-K deepen those relationships and gives partners the experience of working with O-A-K people who are members of their own community.

O-A-K will continue its focus on K-12, higher education, healthcare, government, and aviation clients as it grows in the greater Lansing area.

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The Right Person to Lead the Way

O-A-K recently named Tom Shanley to the newly created role of Director of Central Michigan Operations, where he will lead the East Lansing office. Shanley has spent most of his construction career working in the central and eastern Michigan regions, with experience at The Christman Co. and MIG Construction, and most recently as an owner's representative at Kramer Management Group.

Shanley is in the process of hiring a small East Lansing based staff of three to five people, who are expected to be working out of the office by the end of the year.

"We'll be continually growing our team as we go," Shanley said. "A lot of our field staff work out of mobile trailers and those types of things, but we want to be able to have touch down spaces to bring our teams in to talk, do safety trainings, and collaborative type things."

The office sits immediately east of U.S. 127, giving the team easy access to Shiawassee, Genesee, Livingston, Jackson, and Clinton counties.

"We feel pretty strongly that we can definitely help in this area," Shanley said. "The model that we have, it travels well, but we need that presence."

Meet Tom Shanley

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Built on Partnership

What sets O-A-K apart is the ability to advocate for the client, from the earliest stages of Preconstruction through the final days of a project. The team brings cost certainty and operational planning to complex, technically demanding work, giving partners the tools they need to make informed decisions at every stage. That approach does not change when O-A-K enters a new market. It travels with us.

As a 100 percent employee owned firm, O-A-K's people have a personal stake in every outcome. That is not a slogan, it changes how we work. When team members live in the communities they serve, that commitment deepens, and it shows up in every client relationship, every trade partner conversation, and every project delivered together. Guided by partnership, we are determined to build the best experience.

Become our Trade Partner

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Second Stop on a Bigger Map

East Lansing marks O-A-K's second recent investment outside of its home base in Grand Rapids. The company is also building a new office in Kalamazoo, at property it purchased last year in Western Michigan University's Business, Technology and Research Park. The 8,700 sf office is set to break ground this fall and open in early summer 2027.

Our Michigan Locations

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Read the story on Crain's Grand Rapids Business

Where West Michigan Comes to Play | The Meijer Sports Complex Expansion

Ten years ago, the West Michigan Sports Commission broke ground on a vision. On May 11, 2026, they cut the ribbon on the next chapter of it.

Since opening in 2015, the Meijer Sports Complex in Plainfield Township has drawn athletes and families from across the country, quietly becoming one of West Michigan's most reliable engines for sports tourism and community recreation. But for WMSC President Mike Guswiler and his team, the original vision was never fully complete. A winning streak campaign and the right partnership brought that vision back to life.

O-A-K returned as Construction Manager to help make it happen.

"We wanted to build upon what we started," Guswiler said at the ribbon cutting. "We saw the Meijer Sports Complex producing the sports tourism we were looking for, but also serving as a community asset. So we brought O-A-K back to the table and said, 'Let's improve what we did.'"

The $13.5 million expansion adds the Alro Steel Championship Softball Field as its centerpiece, a signature venue designed to rival the facility's existing Boss Family Championship Field. The field features a canopy, press box, bleacher system, and lighting built for evening tournament play. Aquinas College's women's softball team already called it home during their spring season, and it will serve youth leagues from 8U and up alongside adult amateur and collegiate competition.

Rounding out the expansion: 20 new pickleball courts, two flex-use diamond fields, bullpen facilities, a concession building, restrooms, a playground, and 300 additional parking spots.

For O-A-K Project Manager Jared Gauss and his team, the project carried the weight of a returning partnership and a community that had been watching the complex grow for more than a decade.

"It was an exciting project," Gauss said. "The level of detail that went into this facility, from the bullpens to the bleacher system to the canopy and press box, everything was designed to put on a great tournament event."

The expanded complex is projected to welcome 200 additional teams annually and generate an extra $1 million in visitor spending for the region each year. For a facility that already returns roughly $90 million in annual economic impact on a $2.6 million operating budget, the expansion represents something more than square footage. It represents a community that keeps investing in itself.

"Our donors are going to be as pleased as we are with the result," Guswiler said.

So will the families, the athletes, and the teams who will call this place home for years to come.

‍Mass Timber, Up Close: Inside Kalamazoo College's New Residence Hall

Some of the best conversations in construction happen on site, surrounded by the work itself. That was the case when Dan Gelder, project superintendent for Owen-Ames-Kimball Co., caught up with Susan Lindemann, Associate Vice President for Facilities Management at Kalamazoo College, on site at their new residence hall for a conversation about what makes this project worth talking about.

"We are putting up our first new residence hall in 60 years here at Kalamazoo College," Susan said, "and we really think it's a special build."

Why Mass Timber?

For the Kalamazoo College team, mass timber was not just a structural choice. It was a values statement.

"Mass timber is really biophilic," Susan explained. "Studies have shown that introducing natural materials into a building space actually reduces anxiety and stress and improves productivity. We really want that for our students."

Mass timber products like cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam beams are manufactured by bonding layers of wood under pressure, creating structural elements strong enough to replace steel and concrete. The material is lighter, faster to install, and stores carbon rather than emitting it, making it one of the more compelling low-carbon options in construction today. All of the timber on this project is southern pine, sourced from the southeastern United States and manufactured in Alabama.

Sustainability at the Core

Mass timber is one piece of a broader sustainability story at Kalamazoo College. The four-story residence hall also incorporates geothermal heating and cooling, passive energy strategies, and high-performance building systems alongside student lounges, a community kitchen, a marketplace, study spaces, and other shared amenities. Construction is on track for completion in Summer 2027.

O-A-K recently welcomed students from Michigan State University's Mass Timber program to the jobsite, along with supplier SmartLam North America, for a tour as Quality Buildings LLC begins timber installation at the east tower and lobby. For the next generation of builders, there is no better classroom than the jobsite itself.