In a prestigious office tower minutes away from Philadelphia'sCity Hall in the heart of its downtown, you can find a Primroseschool, one of a national system of accredited private preschools.You can also find one at a 53-acre mixed-use community inBrookhaven, GA, which features residential units and 66,000 squarefeet of retail space. In the Grant Park submarket of Atlanta, thereis a Primrose School occupying the space where an obsoletewarehouse used to sit.

Move over street-level retail and green walking trails. Thelatest amenity for mixed-use projects is a school, according to JoKirchner, CEO of the educational institution. There are more than25 million children under the age of 5 living in the US today andthe majority of their families live in child care deserts, sheexplains. Which is certainly of interest to city and schoolofficials, but mixed-use developers? Yes, Kirchner says. "Primroseschools, for instance, draw in parents twice-a-day,five-days-a-week, many of whom are higher-income millennials—themost active generation of homebuyers in the nation."