100-acre Shawhaven Farm in Mason includes haunted house, corn maze. It's up for auction

MASON - If you've ever wanted to own a 100-acre farm that can double as a seasonal and spooky attraction now may be your chance.

After 20 years in business, Shawhaven Farm's owners are auctioning off the property because of retirement plans. The farm off Rolfe Road is known for its pumpkin patch, haunted house, corn maze, escape rooms and other activities offered there every fall.

Doug Shaw's family has owned the property for 76 years. He bought it in 1970 and ran it as a dairy farm. Two decades ago, he and his wife Tami turned 40 acres of the property into an agritourism venture, starting with adding a haunted house.

"We were still farming," Tami Shaw said. "We had over 200 head of sheep at the time and other animals. We both love Halloween, so we started with a haunted house."

The seasonal business grew from there. The property is valued between $900,000 to $1 million, said Jason Buher, sales manager at Sheridan Realty & Auction Co. The Mason-based company is handling the farm's online auction. Bids, which started at $250,000, will be accepted through 1 p.m. on Oct. 30.

The Shaws plan to retire but intend to offer advice to any buyer who wants to continue running the seasonal business they started.

"We're hoping someone keeps it going," Tami Shaw said.

The last season for business

After the farm sells the Shaws will move not far away to a 10-acre property. This is their final season running a seasonal business at Shawhaven Farm.

Over the years thousands of people have bought pumpkins, made their way through the haunted house or the 8-acre corn maze or tried their hand at one of the property's escape rooms.

"We're getting families that came as kids, and they're bringing their kids, so that's fun to see," Tami Shaw said. "We get a lot of families that meet here. Some live in Detroit, some in Grand Rapids, some wherever, and they all meet here for the day."

It's been an emotional fall for the couple. Doug Shaw suggested it should be their last season for the business earlier this year and Tami agreed.

"This last weekend really hit me hard," Tami Shaw said.

The property is zoned for agricultural use, she said, but the couple secured a special use permit that allows its owner to use the land for a business related to its purpose as a farm. The new owner could use it to offer up the same kind of seasonal operation they're running.

But Buher points out that the couple is auctioning off the farm property, not a business.

The sale does include several buildings on the property, including a 2,149-square-foot, two-story house with three bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms, a large event barn, a cow barn, a hay barn and a feed room with two silos.

There is also the farm's haunted house with automation and numerous scenes, four escape rooms and the corn maze.

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Bidding has already started

The Shaws chose to auction the farm off and hold a separate online auction of its farm equipment to limit the number of times they needed to make the property available for a walk-through to potential buyers, Tami Shaw said.

"With real estate, you can have people coming constantly and with running the business, that would be really hard to do," she said. "We figured an auction would be a little bit easier on our peace of mind and our sanity at this time."

An open house at the property, located at 1826 Rolfe Road, was offered on Oct. 21. Another is scheduled between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Monday.

The online property auction has already drawn plenty of interest, Buher said.

"There are farmers that are interested, there are people that are interested in it as continuing what the Shaws have done and then there are also buyers that are just speculative investors," he said. "You don't find a 100-acre piece of ground that comes up for sale within a couple of miles of the city limits of Mason very often."

A week into the bidding process the property's current bid was at $359,000 on Friday morning, Buher said. He expects that number to go up.

"Most of the bidding takes place in the last hour of the sale," Buher said.

To learn more about the auction and to view details about the property visit www.sheridanauctionservice.com .

Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ .

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 100-acre Shawhaven Farm in Mason includes haunted house, corn maze. It's up for auction