The Spark
Highwoods Properties is Nashville’s largest office landlord, with 4.6 million square feet and roughly 29 buildings across the market. When the pandemic hit, the company was staring at a 263,597-square-foot building at 701 Cool Springs Boulevard that was coming back on March 1, 2023, completely empty. Nobody was signing big office leases. Rather than wait it out, Highwoods spent two years during the shutdown rethinking what an office campus needed to be. They built a new park in the middle of three buildings with pickleball courts, a basketball court, a stage, a playground, and a jewel-box retail space for a coffee shop, rebranding the campus as Park Place. They could control 90% of that activation themselves. But one of the most important pieces, the one they could not do alone, was child care. Coming out of COVID, child care topped the wish list.
The Solution
Highwoods initially explored offering child care itself but scrapped the idea once the complexity became clear. They needed a dedicated operator. Then Chris and Jenny Stine, franchisees of Celebree School who live within walking distance of Park Place, came through a broker search looking for the right space. When they saw the campus plans, the fit was immediate. The building’s unusual H-shaped floor plate created a self-contained child care wing with direct access from the parking garage, exterior signage on Cool Springs Boulevard, and a dedicated outdoor play area. It looked as if it had been designed for this purpose.
Celebree School handles all child care operations, licensing, and staffing. The center is licensed to serve up to 178 children from 6 weeks through 5 years old, and operates from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, with flexible schedules for families. The school is open to everyone, but building tenants receive promotional incentives. Chris and Jenny added a last-minute mother’s room so parents working upstairs could come down and nurse during the day. Teacher retention has been what Jenny calls their secret sauce. In an industry where turnover is constant, Celebree backs up the environment with concrete benefits: up to $300 in health care reimbursement, free professional development courses, bonuses for teachers who complete and pass the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, and 50% off child care tuition for their own children. The teachers eat lunch in the park, enjoy the amenities, and stay. The school’s tour-to-enrollment conversion rate is abnormally high compared to other Celebree locations nationally.
The campus around the school completes the picture. Ryder and Michaella Zetts, chefs who trained in Michelin-starred kitchens, opened SOS Counter in the building. The Well Coffeehouse is located within the park. A dentist and med spa joined the first floor. Residents stumble upon Park Place and post pictures on the Cool Springs Facebook group asking what this place is. As John says, it was redevelopment done the best way he has seen in his career.
The Results
The building went from 0% leased to almost 100%, with only one 4,700-square-foot space remaining. By year-end, occupancy will be close to full across all five floors with about 20 tenants. In the last month alone, Highwoods turned down multiple deals at Cool Springs because they had no space left, while competitors in the submarket still have significant vacancies. John attributes that to the full amenity package, but he is clear that Celebree School is the piece that ties everything together. A high-quality child care center on-site is the kind of amenity that changes how prospective tenants think about the campus, and John says what they have today would not be the same without it.
Chris and Jenny, now about eight months into operations, are seeing the tipping point. Families were initially cautious about something new, but the reputation is building and word of mouth from enrolled families has become the school’s greatest advocate. Highwoods is already applying the model across its Nashville portfolio, turning entire floors of other buildings into hospitality-level amenity spaces. John says child care will be part of the playbook anywhere the building configuration supports it. With 29 buildings in Nashville, the question is not whether to do it again, but where.
THE BLUEPRINT
Investment: Highwoods invested in a full campus redevelopment during the pandemic, programming the park, retail, fitness, and amenity spaces around 701 Cool Springs Boulevard. Celebree School invested as a franchisee in the buildout of the child care space within the building. No child care subsidy flows from Highwoods to Celebree or to tenants. The model works through mutual value: child care draws tenants, tenants fill the building, and a full building sustains the ecosystem.
Timeline: Highwoods spent approximately two years during the pandemic redesigning the campus. The Celebree School connection came through a broker search for the right child care partner. Permitting was the most time-consuming phase. The school opened in October 2024 and is now roughly eight months into operations.
Partners: Celebree School (franchisees Chris and Jenny Stine, handle all child care operations, licensing, and staffing), Highwoods Properties (provides the space within its office building, maintains the campus amenities). Highwoods initially explored running child care itself but concluded the insurance and liability complexity required a dedicated operator.
Key Decision: Identifying child care as the number one amenity priority before finding a partner. Highwoods said they could control 90% of the campus activation, but child care was in the 10% they could not do alone. They needed the right partner. When Chris and Jenny Stine saw the plans, the synergies were immediate. The lesson: commit to child care as a design priority first, then find the operator who can execute it.
Their Advice: “If you don’t invest in your buildings and you don’t invest the amenities in your buildings, you will fall behind. It is a race to recruit the best and the brightest. We couldn’t have done this without Celebree School. Even what we have today without them would not be what it is.” – John Green, Highwoods Properties