About Us

Hi, my name is Eric Hansen

and I am the founder and CEO of Sunset Coast Lawns. I have been in the industry and owned my own companies in the Chicagoland area since 1982. I have done landscape installation, pavers/patios and walls, landscape design and all sorts of lawn maintenance and landscape services as well as snowplowing. I even provided holiday lighting and irrigation and gutter cleaning; basically anything outdoors for your property. However, my passion throughout my 40 years was fertilization and weed control for lawns.

I never went to school for any of this. My degree from Northern Illinois University was in Finance. I told everyone that even though I didn’t have any landscape or agronomy degree, the reason I was still in business was because of my finance degree. Probably true.

As I honed my knowledge of lawn turf in the Midwest, I learned through being out in the field and working with all of the chemicals (yes, chemicals) over the years. Fertilizer and weed control products when I started were kind of scary. We sprayed them all on the lawns and used hundreds of gallons a day. Overspray would kill your plants and trees. Spills would stain your driveway and I think that the lawn would glow at night!

I started with my customers at Competitive Lawn Service, in the late 90s I purchased Environmentally Yours (200 customers). I also purchased Professional TurfCare (1000 customers). I eventually sold both chemical fertilizer companies 2002 to what was Chemlawn Truegreen. Made sense as I was still able to keep the Competitive Lawn customers providing all kinds of services to them (550 customers).

As our care of the environment began to enter the dialog for what we were doing with lawn fertilization, I became interested. I also wanted to not be surrounded by all of the chemicals, spraying, large trucks and tanks. I started to experiment with organics out in the field. Could a quality organic product (expensive at the time) give the same results? Would it be better for the environment? Could we get away from all this liquid weed control?

Some of the first materials in the beginning didn’t green up. Didn’t last in the soil. Didn’t really give the results the customer wanted or that we used to provide. But with studying the products that worked and the ones that didn’t, I was able to get results. I was also able to drop the expensive pricing down to a more reasonable cost for the customer. Is it more expensive than other companies’ approach? It is. Does it give a more healthy and stronger and weed free green lawn while being better for your property and our environment? Absolutely!!

So, I now began to offer it to our customers. We had great results with these organic based products and could offer it at pricing that residential and commercial customers could afford. I first offered this program to the Village of Downers Grove, Illinois. After getting great results from that project, it was recognized that I knew what I was doing. I was then hired to design an organic fertilization and weed control program for the Morton Arboretum. This is one of the best known arboretums in the US!

The task was to design a program to fertilize areas in the formal hedge garden that Joy Morton planted in 1934.I was also tasked with treating and eliminating all of the dandelions, Creeping Charlie, and clover that were in the lawn and also in between rows and rows of the plant collections. Oh, and don’t damage any plants while you are at it. Lots of soil testing would also be necessary to see what was happening underneath the turf during this process. Again, great results. Through tweaks and adjustments over the next 15 years of providing fertilization to The Arboretum, as well as using research and soil testing, I had even better outcomes.

The Chicago Park District found out about my work at The Arboretum and I was then hired to design an organic program for them. It was a 5 year commitment and also contained soil testing that I did over the next 5 years. After submittal, my 5 year program was used on the entire downtown campus including the Museum campus, areas around the Bean, Grant park and Buckingham fountain. Here is me at Buckingham fountain pulling soil tests for the park district.

After an entire career of maintaining customers’ lawns, I was in need of a change of scenery. With 25 employees and 38 years of owning and operating a successful business in Downers Grove IL, it was time for a change. The business went on the market in 2019. The business sold on March 17, 2020. This was the same day that the pandemic started. Who knew.

Many may know my name from other businesses that are in St. Joseph and Kalamazoo, MI. I was one of the owners of The Whitcomb 2006-2022. I am one of the owners of Fresh Perspectives Home Care in Kalamazoo, MI.

In 2003 I visited Southwest Michigan for the first time. In one weekend my wife and I purchased land and then built a home here. What began as a few days each weekend during the Summer, now has brought us here as full time residents as of 2020 and now being Michiganders.

I have served on the board and have been board president for Island Pointe Marina. We live in a marina community and are avid boaters on the St. Joe river and Lake Michigan. I also have been on the board and had the pleasure of serving as Commodore of the St. Joseph River Yacht Club for 2021-2022 during Covid.

So that’s my story.

I have learned that there are two things that have allowed me to be able to build businesses and serve the customer, our employees and the entire community. Show up and do what you say you are going to do. And then business grows. Imagine that, showing up on time, giving the pricing, getting the results that are expected, and doing it for every customer. No excuses, no delay.

I know that I have the best organic based fertilization and weed control program available and have proven it for 40 years. So hire us!

- Eric

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