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.
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."
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.
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.