Erin Ahart and her husband, Jim, have always had entrepreneurial spirits. Originally from Boston, Ahart owned multiple small businesses and often took a DIY approach to renovations.
“I started with small coffee shops that I renovated, and I added an addition to my first home,” she says. “Over time, I flipped three houses in Massachusetts and just found I really enjoyed the process.”
Jim, who is originally from the Midwest, told Ahart he wanted to move back one day and previously owned a property in Lewistown, Illinois. So, when an abandoned nursing home nearby presented a unique opportunity for the couple, they decided to take it – and Sycamore Acres was born.
“We bought it sight unseen and thought it would be a fun project,” Ahart says. “It had been sitting vacant for about two years but was still in decent condition.”
Now a vibrant hub for the community, Sycamore Acres includes long- and short-term rental apartments, fun activities for the family and affordable space for small businesses.
“The building is shaped like an X, and our idea was to turn part of it into one-bedroom apartments and the other part into small businesses and community amenities for what the town needed and wanted. We also wanted it to be an affordable and accessible space for entrepreneurs,” Ahart explains. “I renovated one wing at a time. Seven apartments took five months, and we had them ready in October 2021.”
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Something for Everyone
Before owning Sycamore Acres, Ahart had a background working at a homeless shelter in Massachusetts.
“My experience there helped me understand the need for affordable housing not only in Massachusetts, but really everywhere,” she says. “The nursing home was already set up well for apartments, and we knew we wanted to incorporate that. We charge $900 to rent our unfurnished units. That includes all utilities, and laundry is free. We feel like that’s an affordable price for someone to work a minimum-wage job and be able to live comfortably.”
While helping to fill that need, Ahart also wanted to bring fun, interesting and family-friendly businesses to the rural area. At Sycamore Acres, visitors will find a paint studio and a Splatter Paint Studio, dance studio, Pop Shop, indoor putt-putt golf, a tattoo shop, an escape room and more.
Ahart says Sycamore Acres has always been about serving community needs and helping generate income for small businesses while making it easier on them to get started or stay in business – whether it’s something she has experience in or not.
“For example, there was demand for a dance studio, but I knew that wasn’t my skill set,” she says. “After just two weeks of advertising for teachers, we found Ms. Emily, who has now been teaching for almost five years. We have about 70 kids taking dance classes on Wednesday nights, and every June, they have a recital. We have another teacher who teaches dance fitness classes that are geared toward all ages.”
Ahart herself runs the paint studio, the Splatter Paint studio, the Wacky Golf nine-hole putt-putt course and the Pop Shop – a soda shop offering “dirty sodas,” or sodas with added syrups, fruit purees and/or a splash of cream. At Wacky Golf, each hole is uniquely themed, and some are even in the dark, featuring black lights. In addition to the studio, there’s the Splatter Paint room where visitors can hang a canvas on the wall and fling paint at it for a fun and unusual art piece and an amusing time.
Community members come to Ahart regularly with new ideas, and she tries to help with spaces that are budget-friendly and accommodating.
“We’ve had different rooms be business offices, a tattoo parlor, a nail salon, a dog groomer and more,” she says. “There’s a large space in the middle of the facility, and we’ve turned it into a bar and restaurant that just opened in the fall.”
Other ideas have included a trinket trade box, where kids can swap little toys and trinkets, as well as a plant swap.
“People have great ideas, and if I can say yes, we do it,” Ahart says.
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Farm Bureau Funding
To help support Sycamore Acres and the local community, Ahart applied for an Illinois Farm Bureau Rural Development Grant. The program supports development projects that positively impact Farm Bureau members and other rural Illinoisans, promoting economic development and quality of life. Ahart was awarded $5,000 in grant funds and used it to add a pumpkin patch and three farm stands to Sycamore Acres.
“We had pick-your-own pumpkins this year, and a small group of community members started a garden,” Ahart says. “We gave them five rows of tilled space and pay for water. Anyone in the community is welcome to get fresh vegetables, and the community support and work to make the garden a success has been astounding. The farm stands are where people can swap plants and more produce.”
She learned about the grant through her involvement with the Fulton County Farm Bureau and the Spoon River Partnership for Economic Development (SRPED), where she serves on the board.
“I’d love to add an outdoor play space for kids, and we have a few more small projects in mind,” she says.
For more information about Sycamore Acres, visit sycamorelewistown.com.
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Granting Support for Rural Communities
Erin Ahart of Sycamore Acres is one of many recipients of the Illinois Farm Bureau Rural Development Grant Program, which helps fund economic development and quality of life projects throughout rural communities and counties within the state. Launched in 2023, the grant program is open to county Farm Bureaus, units of local government, economic development organizations, nonprofits, and/or community groups and small businesses.
Applications are open from Oct. 1 to Dec. 1, and the program awards multiple grants per cycle, which have ranged from $1,300 to $10,000 in the past, for projects that positively impact Farm Bureau members and other rural residents. Last year, the program invested $120,000 in grant funding thanks to $100,000 from IFB and $20,000 from COUNTRY Financial.
When evaluating applicants, IFB looks for projects that meet a need in a community, county or rural area. Examples include projects focused on attracting businesses, fostering entrepreneurship, providing access to fresh food, improving infrastructure, increasing healthcare access, developing tourism, expanding available housing, enhancing emergency services and much more. The grants are intended for projects that are ready to move forward.
County Farm Bureaus are vital partners for the program’s success. Like Ahart did with Fulton County Farm Bureau, applicants collaborate with their local county Farm Bureau to apply, and IFB verifies the CFB is supportive of the project. Once recipients are selected, grant funding flows through the CFB to the recipient.
“What Erin Ahart has done to transform a former nursing home into a vibrant mix of housing and small businesses is truly remarkable,” says Ryan Tate, IFB associate director of local government. “Illinois Farm Bureau, in cooperation with the Fulton County Farm Bureau, is proud we were able to partner with her to add agricultural and food components to further enhance Sycamore Acres.”
For more information on the IFB Rural Development Grant Program, click here.
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