A Florida-based daycare franchise backed by private equity money is building out five new child care centers across the Upstate, with the first slated to open in Simpsonville before the end of this year. The Learning Experience has announced an updated timeline for the rollout, which will eventually bring new locations to Greenville, Simpsonville and Spartanburg by the end of 2027.
According to the Greenville Journal, the Simpsonville center at 409 W. Georgia Road is now targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, a shift from the third-quarter 2026 opening the company had originally floated. The company had previously floated a third-quarter 2026 opening.
The other four sites follow through 2027. A Greenville location at 13 Brookfield Oaks Drive is planned for the first quarter of 2027, while three more centers — at 2700 Woodruff Road in Five Forks, 681 Halton Road in Greenville, and 2980 Reidville Road in Spartanburg — are all slated for the fourth quarter of 2027, per the same report.
What Each New Center Will Look Like
Every new facility will serve roughly 180 children, ages six weeks to six years old, inside up to 10,000 square feet of indoor space with a 5,000-square-foot playground attached, the Journal reported. Each center is expected to employ around 30 staff members and certified teachers, a staffing level shaped in part by state child care rules that mandate one staff member for every five infants and one for every six toddlers under South Carolina Department of Social Services licensing regulations.
The company already has a foothold in the region. The Learning Experience currently operates a center at 830 East Suber Road in Greer, which offers care for children ages six weeks to five years old and runs weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., according to the company's own listing.
Corporate Backing Behind the Expansion
The push into the Upstate comes after Harvest Partners, LP completed a majority acquisition of The Learning Experience from Golden Gate Capital on July 1, 2025, with co-founder and CEO Richard Weissman retaining a significant ownership stake. As of that same month, the network encompassed more than 430 centers operating or under development across 29 states and the United Kingdom; the Greenville Journal now puts the current count at 491 locations across the U.S. and U.K.
David Slavny, chief development officer at The Learning Experience, told the Journal that Greenville and the broader Upstate region represent “an exciting growth opportunity” for the franchise. He described the area as “a dynamic, family-focused market that continues to grow,” adding that there is strong demand for high-quality early childhood education as more families and businesses make the area home.
The company's national expansion strategy has followed a similar script elsewhere. Hoodline previously reported on five new Upstate New York centers planned by 2028, and on a six-location build-out across the suburban Sacramento area targeted for 2029.
Affordability Pressures Facing Upstate Families
The expansion lands in a region where child care demand is high but far from evenly affordable. As of September 2026, 64% of South Carolina children under age six have all available parents in the workforce, while center-based infant care in the state averages $10,474 a year, or $873 a month, according to First Five Action. The group notes that child care expenses consume more than 10% of median household earnings for a South Carolina family of four.
That squeeze has worsened for some lower-income families. The Post and Courier reported that enrollment at some South Carolina child care centers declined significantly after the state tightened eligibility rules in late 2025 for federally supplemented ABC vouchers, which had averaged $750 per child monthly and previously covered up to 90% of toddler care costs for qualifying families.
Locally, United Way of Greenville County data shows 1 in 10 residents live in poverty and more than 13,000 households spend over half their income on rent. The expansion comes against a backdrop of affordability pressures for Greenville County residents.
Opening a single 10,000-square-foot facility under the franchise model is a substantial undertaking. Real estate industry benchmarks reviewed by Hoodline show a typical initial franchise fee of $60,000, with total startup costs ranging from $685,799 to more than $5.6 million under long-term 15-year leases — underscoring the scale of investment behind each new Upstate location.
