Garden Grove / Central Orange County
Brookhurst Street is where most of the verified operators sit, from OC Kids north of Chapman Avenue down to School First Learning Center near Garden Grove Boulevard, with Little Works of Art just east of the Brookhurst and Chapman corner that holds The Promenade and Pavilion Plaza. Garden Grove Boulevard between Beach and Brookhurst (the Korean District) already has two licensed preschools, Dragonfly Academy and Garden Grove 1st Preschool. Westminster Avenue east of Brookhurst has the largest single preschool license we found (Sunflower, 119 children). The state search listed 39 Day Care Center licenses in the city on September 18, 2026, and a good share of them are school district, Head Start and church sites, so space inside a shopping center is the less common format here.
Population
170,964
Median HHI
$92,174
Median age
40.2
Homeownership
53.1%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Brookhurst Street · Harbor Boulevard · Chapman Avenue · Westminster Avenue · Garden Grove Boulevard
Specific shopping centers in Garden Grove that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
Chapman Avenue at Brookhurst Street
Anchors / key tenants: regional and value retail mix
Repositioned from the original 1956 Orange County Plaza. Long-running community center at the city’s most important retail intersection (Brookhurst/Chapman).
SWC Brookhurst Street at Chapman Avenue
Anchors / key tenants: CVS Pharmacy, Chuze Fitness, Citibank
Daily-needs and fitness co-tenancy with Best Choice Supermarket, El Pollo Loco, Little Caesar’s, CosmoProf, and T-Mobile. Functional cross-shop with the rest of the Brookhurst/Chapman intersection.
Garden Grove Boulevard between Beach and Brookhurst
Anchors / key tenants: Korea House BBQ Buffet, dense Korean retail and dining
North-of-Little-Saigon Korean retail and dining district. Korean BBQ, KBBQ buffets, Korean grocery, and beauty/skincare operators line Garden Grove Blvd. Cultural-fit concepts outperform generic chains here.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Garden Grove rents. These are publicly visible daycare and education space businesses currently trading in the market.
OC Kids Infant & Preschool
11362 Brookhurst Street, Garden Grove, CA 92840
State record shows a single licensed child care center with capacity 101: 69 preschool, 12 toddler, 9 infant and 11 school-age children. Licensee is Sunland Academies Garden Grove Inc. On Brookhurst Street about 0.6 mile north of Chapman Avenue.
Little Works of Art Children's Center
10241 Chapman Avenue, Garden Grove, CA 92840
Preschool license for 30 children ages 2 to 5, first licensed in 2023. The May 2025 state file also lists an infant license (8) and a school-age license (30) at this address. About a quarter mile east of Brookhurst and Chapman, where The Promenade and Pavilion Plaza sit.
Dragonfly Academy
8762 Garden Grove Boulevard #102, Garden Grove, CA 92844
Licensed for 54 preschool children ages 2 to 5 in five rooms, first licensed in 2023. A suite address on Garden Grove Boulevard between Beach Boulevard and Brookhurst Street, the stretch the city's Korean District covers.
Garden Grove 1st Preschool
8461 Garden Grove Boulevard, Garden Grove, CA 92844
Licensed for 100 children (88 preschool plus 12 toddlers). Also on Garden Grove Boulevard between Beach and Brookhurst.
Sunflower Preschool & After School Center
10531 Westminster Avenue, Garden Grove, CA 92843
Licensed for 119 children ages 2 to 6, with a separate 30-child school-age license in the May 2025 state file. About half a mile east of Brookhurst on Westminster Avenue. The same operator name appears on licenses at 12741 Main Street and 11792 Garden Grove Boulevard.
Childtime Children's Center
12421 Springdale Street, Garden Grove, CA 92845
National brand (Childtime Childcare, Inc.) in west Garden Grove. Preschool license for 80 children ages 2 to 5, licensed since 1991, with infant (20) and school-age (60) licenses at the same address in the May 2025 state file.
School First Learning Center
12755 Brookhurst Street, Garden Grove, CA 92840
K-12 after-school tutoring, weekend courses, SAT prep and summer school, per the operator's own site. Tutoring, so no child care license. On Brookhurst about a quarter mile north of Garden Grove Boulevard.
01
Zoning: the city's Land Use Matrix (Table 1 in Municipal Code Section 9.16.020.030), as restated in the Zoning Amendment A-042-2024(B) ordinance packet for the July 8, 2025 City Council hearing, shows Child Day Care Center as C (conditional use permit) in the C-1 and C-2 zones and not allowed in O-P, C-3, M-1, M-P or O-S. Confirm the parcel's zone first, because a C-3 or office-professional site does not work on that table.
02
Tutoring and enrichment: the same table lists Trade, Business School as C in C-1, C-2 and C-3, and Art, Music and Dance studios as P (permitted) in O-P, C-1 and C-2. Tutoring is not its own row in the table we read, so ask Planning in writing how they will classify a tutoring or learning center before you sign.
03
Parking: the code requires 1 space per care provider and staff member plus 1 space for each 6 children. In a January 2026 Zoning Administrator report the city applied that to a 65-child, 11-staff preschool and got 22 spaces. Run that math against the center's shared parking before you settle on a capacity.
04
Mixed-use and civic center zones are handled in Chapter 9.18, not 9.16. City staff wrote in January 2026 that a Child Day Care Center is a conditionally permitted use in the CC-3 zone, so sites near Main Street and the Civic Center follow that chapter.
05
Outdoor play area: Title 22 needs 75 square feet of outdoor space per child (22 CCR 101238.2) and 35 square feet indoors (101238.3). In the January 2026 case at 12741 Main Street the proposed space came up short on both (2,149 square feet indoors against 2,275 required, 3,403 outdoors against 4,875), and the city made the 65-child capacity contingent on a written CDSS waiver with staggered outdoor play times. Several existing Garden Grove licenses carry similar outdoor waivers, so ask the landlord early where a fenced yard of at least four feet high can go.
06
Fire clearance: 22 CCR 101171 requires a fire clearance before licensing. The Little Works of Art license on Chapman Avenue caps children per room 'per fire department', which shows room-by-room limits can come out lower than the square footage alone would suggest.
Zoning, licensing, and demographic figures on this page come from the public records below. Codes and licenses change, so confirm with the city and the licensing agency before you sign.