Staten Island, NY The Learning Experience is expanding in New York with 11 new locations opening over the next two years – bringing 110,000 s/f of freestanding commercial real estate space, full-time jobs, and consistent traffic to nearby businesses with parents dropping off and picking up their children twice a day, five days a week. The Learning Experience locations each consist of up to 10,000 s/f of indoor building space with up to a 5,000 s/f playground. Each new center will also employ as many as 30 staff members and certified teachers to serve upwards of 180 children between six weeks and six years of age with daycare and early childhood education.
The franchise, which has more than 30 centers operating across the state of New York, plans to open new locations in: 1. Staten Island at 35A Bay St. in Q1 2025 2. Brooklyn at 992 Lorimer St. in Q1 2025 3. Queens at 148-02 Archer Ave. in Q2 2025 4. Brooklyn at 1884 Broadway in Q2 2025 5. Brooklyn at 510 Driggs Ave. in Q2 2025 6. Eastdale Village in Q3 2025 7. Clifton Park in Q3 2025 8. Farmingdale at 901 Main St. in Q4 2025 9. Port Jefferson Station at 590 Route 112 in Q3 2026 10. Smithtown in Q3 2026 11. New City in Q3 2026
The Learning Experience was ranked No. 25 overall in Entrepreneur magazine’s 2025 ranking of the world’s top 500 franchises.
The Florida-based franchise, which is owned by the San Francisco private equity group Golden Gate Capital, has opened more than 80 centers over the past two years and now has more than 420 in 30 states, as well as three locations in the U.K. It plans to add more than 160 new locations over the next three years. The expansion underscores an overall increase in the development of new early learning assets, which shows no signs of slowing down as demand in this segment is sky high and growing. Net lease real estate investors remain attracted to the early learning sector’s recession-resistant nature, high-quality real estate, long lease terms, escalating demand, and value creditworthy large operators like The Learning Experience as tenants.
When identifying potential sites and markets for expansion, The Learning Experience’s chief development officer David Slavny and his real estate team analyzes a number of factors, including daytime population of the surrounding area; traffic patterns; population of children ages six and under in a one-, three- and five-mile radius; and average household incomes within those same areas. The Learning Experience pursues growth in new markets by establishing both franchise and corporate owned sites in each major metro market.
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