A Public Sale with Private Implications

For over five years, Walnut Acres has sat at the center of debate: struggling under financial mismanagement, neglected by the county board, and stripped of critical investments like CNA pay raises and Medicaid expansions. But now, just as the facility nears a breaking point, Serenity Estates—an unknown entity with no verifiable record of operating a successful nursing home for more than a year—swoops in with an offer that just so happens to match the political ambitions of Freeport’s most powerful.

Let’s be clear: Serenity Estates is not a locally grown solution. It’s a corporate buyer formed less than a year ago under the name Lincolns​hire Nursing, LLC, with all operations run from an office in Lincolnwood, IL. The company’s business model relies on acquiring struggling public facilities with the help of large bank loans and immediately flipping them into the black—not through improved care, but through financial restructuring.

So why would Stephenson County accept such a lowball bid from a private buyer with no history here?

Because what happens to this property may open the doors for what happens next.

The Krape Park Connection: Follow the Family, Follow the Money

For the past four years, Steven Chesney—father of Illinois State Senator and Stephenson County GOP figurehead Andrew Chesney—has been fighting to build a senior housing development near Krape Park, one of Freeport’s most iconic and cherished public spaces. His company, Park Partners LLC, along with co-developers Todd Weegens and Bill Heils, has pushed aggressively for a rezoning of six acres at Park Blvd and W. Demeter Drive from single-family (R2) to multi-family (R5) in order to build 32 high-end condos marketed toward seniors aged 55+.

The problem? The community doesn’t want it.
Both the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Planning Commission denied the rezoning request. Residents have raised alarms over traffic, environmental damage, stormwater runoff, and an out-of-place luxury gated community that offers little to no benefit for average Freeport residents.

Yet somehow, the project keeps moving forward.

Why?

Because Mayor Jodi Miller, newly empowered by a council dominated by MAGA Loyalists, has rewritten the rules—literally. Public opposition has been silenced. Dissenting voices on city commissions have been removed. Council procedures have been altered to centralize power in the Mayor’s office. And now, a senior housing development that was previously dead on arrival is once again knocking at the gates of Krape Park.

The very same week that Walnut Acres was approved for private sale.

Coincidence? Or coordination?

The Profit Motive Hiding Behind Public Policy

The Chesney family has spent years building political capital in Stephenson County. With Andrew Chesney now a sitting State Senator and his father leading a development company, the landscape looks more like a dynasty than a democracy.

And their timing could not be more advantageous:

• Walnut Acres is on its way out.

• The only remaining public option for senior housing could soon be privatized.

• And suddenly, a private senior development near Krape Park looks like a “solution” to a problem the Chesneys helped create.

What’s more, these luxury condos will not serve low-income seniors or Medicaid patients. They will not replace the skilled nursing or rehab services that Walnut Acres provides. They will serve only a narrow band of wealthier residents, furthering the divide between those who need care and those who can afford comfort.

Meanwhile, if Serenity Estates follows the pattern seen in other towns—where facilities are flipped, downgraded, or sold again—Freeport’s seniors could find themselves without any accessible long-term care option.