MOUNT CARROLL — What does a city do when it wants to strengthen its economic foundation, open the door to dozens of new places to live, create a community within a community, and breathe new life into a piece of local history?

If you’re Mount Carroll, you give it the old college try.

And boy did it succeed.

It what’s being a called a project of historic proportions, the city celebrated the opening of Shimer Square on Nov. 12 as a major step in redeveloping the former Shimer College. Led by site owner Economic Growth Corp. with support from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the project preserves the former campus’s historic buildings while transforming the 14-acre site into a mixed-use community focused on housing, jobs and long-term economic stability.

Once vacant college classrooms and dorms now anchor the ambitious redevelopment project, where history meets housing, and businesses are soon to come.

The project is a long-term work in progress, and as of the start of the new year 51 apartments with modern amenities have been created, alongside shared indoor and outdoor community spaces. The redevelopment also includes a new resource center offering property management, housing counseling and small-business lending, plus a newly constructed Honey Bee child care center on site — slated to open early this year. Additional plans call for commercial, hospitality and community-focused uses across the campus’s other buildings as redevelopment continues.

The hilltop campus, formerly home to the college until 1978 and mostly vacant since then, is once again active and evolving – this time as a place designed to serve residents across generations while anchoring future economic development for the community and the wider region.

Economic Growth Corp., a national nonprofit with a regional office in Rock Island, focuses on building and managing affordable housing. The idea to develop the Shimer campus took shape in 2018, and the group officially took possession of the campus on Dec. 31, 2018, EGC vice president Beth Payne said.

“We are known to do the hard things, and we wanted to know for sure that we could take this mission on and do it well,” Payne said. “This is the largest development we’ve ever done. It’s all historic.”

EGC board members toured the campus alongside city officials, walking through vacant dormitories, academic halls and aging infrastructure while discussing the possibilities. Andy Fisher directs the construction for EGC, with the actual work done by general contractor Essex Construction of Davenport, Iowa.

“At that time, we started the ball rolling on what, when and how this was all going to take place,” Fisher said. “We did whatever we could at the time we could do it.”

As plans evolved, so did the vision.

“It’s taken turns and has changed form in many ways, but a lot of that is because of the nuances of what it takes to take on these buildings and historically rehabilitate them to what they are now, and to adaptively reuse them as apartments,” Payne said. “If we had not stepped in, this would have been given back to the City of Mount Carroll, and then what?”

The Sawyer House was rehabilitated first, becoming the administrative hub for the development and later incorporating co-working space. Work on the campus’s front gate followed. From there, attention turned to residential buildings.

Shimer Square’s offerings include studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging from 462 to 1,093 square feet, and monthly rents from $430 to $948. The apartments feature in-unit washers and dryers and are designed to be fully accessible, adaptable and pet-friendly, with shared indoor and outdoor amenities across the campus, including community rooms, gardens, walking paths and gathering spaces.

Three historic buildings — McKee Hall, Hostetter Hall and Dezendorf Hall — house the campus’s 51 apartments. McKee and Hostetter, both built in 1906, anchor the residential core, while Dezendorf Hall, constructed in 1962, was the first to welcome residents. Sawyer House now serves as the administrative office for Shimer Square and includes co-working space for tenants. Other campus buildings are being phased into commercial, administrative and community uses. Several former academic buildings are slated for small businesses and child care and other, older structures are still being renovated as funding allows.

Property management for the apartments is handled by Yost Management Services, and availability and unit specifications are shared through the Shimer Square Apartments Facebook page.

The first residents moved into Dezendorf Hall during the first week of November 2025, according to Cindy Berg, EGC’s chief financial officer. She said watching the transformation of the buildings has been especially rewarding.

“I love to see the actual construction process along the way,” Berg said. “The level of craftsmanship was well done. It’s really fun to see it come to life – the hardwood floors, the unique windows, all of that coming together.”

For Fisher, one of the most compelling aspects of Shimer Square is how modern living has been integrated into historic structures.

“It’s up-to-date, up-to-code,” Fisher said. “You’re living in a 100-year-old building, but it’s in 2025 … You’re getting the best of both worlds. There’s a maintenance team, a 14-acre campus that the kids can play in, and with things to come in the future. We have tried to accommodate everything and everyone we could inside a historic building.”

Inside McKee Hall, the former dining hall has been repurposed into a community space, complete with an internet café and co-working area. Painted dorm room numbers still appear on McKee’s original doors — now preserved as false doors.

Brian Hollenback, CEO of Economic Growth Corp., said Shimer Square fits squarely within the organization’s long history of adaptive reuse. He said the campus’s character made it an especially compelling project.

“There’s something about the campus when you walk onto it,” Hollenback said. “With the history of the college, you just have a sense of place. There’s something very special there. It’s a place where the community can come together, and now we’re looking forward with the additional phasing of it becoming a tremendous asset to not only Mount Carroll, but all of Carroll County.”

Construction crews, he added, have also taken pride in the project as they work to restoring the buildings, Hollenback said.

Pointing to touches like the preserved dorm doors in McKee, he said: “You can’t duplicate that,” Hollenback said. “Can you imagine some of the conversations that were had in some of those former dorms and classrooms?”

Support from state and local leaders has been essential, Hollenback said.

“If you do not have support from your elected officials and the community, you’re taking a difficult task and almost making it impossible,” Hollenback said. “Having the support of the mayor and the city council was important for getting through the challenges we came across.”

The redevelopment also expanded beyond housing when city officials suggested adding a child care center. The idea was incorporated into the plan, resulting in a brand-new building on the campus. The Honey Bee child care center is expected open early this year, creating nearly 30 jobs.

Payne said the residential mix has aligned closely with expectations.

“It’s housing for all,” Payne said. “There are a lot of young professionals who are here and retirees who are looking to downsize. Our market base is essentially what we anticipated it to be. With this being the campus that it is, with the quad and that area, too, it’s just a very welcoming community. I don’t think there’s anything like what Shimer Square has to offer in the region, or the state.”

As redevelopment continues, additional buildings are slated for future use. Plans include attracting small businesses into three more campus buildings, converting others into commercial or community-focused spaces, and bringing in a mobile coffee unit to activate the former quad.

As the project continues to evolve, Payne said flexibility has been essential in responding to community needs and in navigating the realities of historic redevelopment.

“The fact that this campus hasn’t been fully utilized in many years, since Shimer left, the goal is for every single building, to our best ability, to be redeveloped and activated with things that we know are going to fit the community,” Payne said. “Mount Carroll’s going to have community meetings to talk about the future of Mount Carroll, the Davis Community Center was recently completed, and the school district has made some changes, so it’s a real exciting time. What we’re doing here is pretty remarkable. It will become more of a destination than it already is as we continue the redevelopment.”

Shimer Square Apartments is located at 203 East Seminary St. in Mount Carroll. Find Shimer Square Apartments on Facebook or go to shimersquare.com to learn more about the former Shimer College campus in Mount Carroll’s reuse into apartments and small business space, as well as for information on apartment specs and leasing. Go to economicgrowthcorporation.com to learn more about Economic Growth Corporation, who owns the site and has rehabbed apartment and housing projects in northwest Illinois.