A fixture of Longmont since 1956, TLC Learning Center has its sights set on a new home for serving children and families.

TLC Learning Center is a nonprofit offering early childhood education and pediatric therapy services to local families. TLC serves around 100 kids every year in its child care center, and around 300 kids every year in its therapy programs.

TLC serves families that can’t afford quality care, as well as full-paying families.

“Our history for almost 70 years has been innovative thinking about how we best serve kids,” said executive director Matt Eldred. “That’s the gap that we fill at TLC. We really work with families that don’t qualify for anything else.”

TLC is currently located at 611 Korte Parkway in southwest Longmont. The Korte Parkway location has nine classrooms for infants through preschoolers, and six therapy rooms for kids up to 12 years old.

After nearly 20 years in that location, Eldred said TLC has outgrown the space.

“As a community, we’re over 100,000 people now,” he said of Longmont. “And TLC needs to grow as our community grows.”

The new 33,000-square-foot Early Learning Collaborative at 1444 E. Third Ave. will include 19 classrooms, a dozen therapy rooms and administrative offices.

The additional classrooms will allow TLC to accommodate more infants and toddlers, which Eldred said is the biggest need.

Other rooms in the Early Learning Collaborative serve as professional development and training spaces for child care providers, who can come to the center for education and resources.

TLC staff are hoping to have construction finished by the spring of 2026.

Since the new location will be twice the size of the current TLC center, it can incorporate new features, including better accessibility for people with disabilities, energy efficiency upgrades and charging stations for electric vehicles. One big addition will be a commercial kitchen, which will let TLC serve more nutritious food to kids in its care.

Eldred said he thinks the new location will be a good site for the next phase of TLC.

“There’s a lot of residential development and especially a lot of low-income housing happening on the east side of town,” Eldred said. “And where we serve a diverse population of folks, we know there’s a need for what we provide in that part of Longmont.”

So far, TLC has raised around $13.4 million out of a $17 million goal for the project. The nonprofit hopes to have the full amount raised by the tentative move-in date of August 2026.

Financial support for the Early Learning Collaborative comes from a variety of sources, including the Stewart Family Foundation and the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. Selling the current TLC center will also roll roughly $3 million into the project.

Amy French-Troy, development and communications manager for TLC, said the center is currently limited in the number of families they can serve due to the building’s size.

“The biggest thing for me is that we will be able to provide more services to the people who need them most,” French-Troy said. “I’m excited that we’ll be able to hopefully shorten our waitlist, because we’ll have more space and be able to get more kids in the door.”

The Early Learning Collaborative will also be an employer-based child care provider for Longmont city employees. Eldred said TLC will be the first nonprofit to partner with the city for this purpose.

“I think these are once-in-a-generation types of projects,” Eldred said of the Early Learning Collaborative. “It’s really exciting to be a part of it and leading it at a time when the community has been so responsive and supportive.”