The Spark
Nashville’s affordable housing crisis and its child care crisis are not two separate problems. They are the same problem wearing different faces. For families earning up to 60% of area median income, the cost of housing and the cost of child care compete for the same limited dollars, and in a city where child care can exceed $18,000 a year, losing access to either one can push a working family out of the workforce entirely. Evan Holladay, founder and CEO of Nashville-based Holladay Ventures, saw an opportunity to address both at once through a public-private partnership model. When his team began planning The Opaline at Artist Hill on Dickerson Pike, the development site was already home to the Lotus Learning Center, an existing early learning center. Rather than displace it, Holladay made a commitment: the child care center would not just survive the construction. It would get a brand-new, purpose-built home next to the affordable apartment community.
The Solution
The Opaline is a 251-unit affordable housing development at 3533 Dickerson Pike in Nashville, the first phase of Artist Hill, a 38-acre master planned community designed for working families and Nashville’s creative workforce. The development is a partnership between Holladay Ventures and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville (ABC). Residents will earn up to 60% of area median income. The project includes 7,000 square feet of retail, nonprofit services, studios, and maker spaces operated in partnership with ABC, walking trails, green spaces, and a future WeGo Public Transit hub in front of the apartments directly on the Dickerson Pike corridor.
At the center of the development plan, both literally and by design, is a new 4,000-square-foot early learning facility for the Lotus Learning Center, designed by Manuel Zeitlin Architects. By building the child care center as a standalone structure next to the residential building, the development eliminates the commute-within-a-commute that consumes time and money for working parents. A resident can walk their child to care, walk to the transit hub, and get to work without a car, without a second drop-off, and without the daily logistics crisis that drives absenteeism and turnover across industries.
The public-private partnership financing model is what makes the integration possible. Public partners, including the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, the Metro Nashville Office of Housing, and the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, provide the housing infrastructure and tax credit framework. Private partners, including Amazon, U.S. Bank, Citibank, Stifel Public Finance, Studio Bank, and Truist Bank, along with the Barnes Housing Trust Fund, a public funding partner through Metro Nashville, provide the capital. The child care facility is funded through the same capital stack as the housing, not through a separate grant or afterthought. That integration is the structural innovation: when child care is built into the financing model from the start, it does not have to compete for a separate budget.
The Results
The Opaline broke ground in late November 2025 and is projected to open in 2028, so occupancy and enrollment data are not yet available. But the project has already generated significant attention as a model for how public-private partnerships can deliver child care infrastructure alongside affordable housing rather than addressing them in separate silos. Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell applauded the approach publicly, noting that an on-site child care center ensures that finding great care for your kids is one less thing for a busy family to worry about.
The broader signal is strategic. Artist Hill’s three-phase master plan envisions both rental and homeownership opportunities across 38 acres, with the child care center established in Phase 1 so that it is operational before the full community is built out. That sequencing matters: child care is not a Phase 3 amenity. It is foundational infrastructure that makes the development more than just housing for the greater community and the families who will live there. For developers, housing authorities, and city leaders across Tennessee, The Opaline offers a proof point that child care can be integrated into affordable housing at the design stage, funded through the same public-private capital stack, and delivered as part of the same project.
THE BLUEPRINT
Investment: The Opaline is funded through a public-private partnership that layers Low-Income Housing Tax Credits with contributions from Amazon, the Barnes Housing Trust Fund, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, the Metro Nashville Office of Housing, the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, U.S. Bank, Citibank, Stifel Public Finance, Studio Bank, and Truist Bank. The 4,000-square-foot child care facility, designed by Manuel Zeitlin Architects, sits in a dedicated standalone building adjacent to the residential tower and was built into the project's financing as a core component, not an add-on.
Timeline: Funding closed and construction began in late November 2025. Completion is projected for 2028. The Opaline is the first of three phases of Artist Hill, a 38-acre master planned community.
Partners: Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville (development partner and nonprofit partner for creative programming), Lotus Learning Center (existing on-site early learning provider that will occupy the new facility). Public partners include MDHA, Metro Nashville, and THDA. Private partners include Amazon, U.S. Bank, Citibank, Stifel, Studio and Truist.
Key Decision: Protecting the existing child care rather than displacing it. The Lotus Learning Center was already operating on the development site before construction began. Rather than close it and move on, Holladay Ventures committed to building a new, larger, purpose-built facility for the center as part of the project. That decision ensured the community did not lose child care capacity during the transition and demonstrated that public-private partnerships can protect and expand community assets rather than replace them. A future WeGo Public Transit center, planned for Dickerson Pike directly in front of The Opaline, will further anchor the development's transit-oriented design.
Their Advice: “We’re striving to establish a model community that serves the creatives who make Nashville special while also tying it to Nashville’s need for transit-oriented development, on-site child care, walking trails, as well as spaces and amenities for artists of all disciplines to work on their craft.” – Evan Holladay, Founder and CEO, Holladay Ventures