Busan is good

Rebirth of a Closed Daycare Center Space… Busan Metropolitan City to Establish “Precious Like You” Public Kids Café and Our Neighborhood ESG Center

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will establish the “Precious Like You Public Kids Café and Our Neighborhood Social Value Management (ESG) Center” (hereinafter referred to as the Public Kids Café) using the closed daycare center site, with 500 million won in sponsorship from Mercedes-Benz.

This project is being promoted as part of the city’s child-rearing policy brand “Precious Like You” and will be carried out in collaboration with the “Our Neighborhood Social Value Management (ESG) Center,” a project that promotes eco-friendly senior employment.

The sponsorship funds were raised through the “Give and Race” event jointly hosted by Mercedes-Benz and the ChildFund Korea Foundation.
Give and Race: A charity program that combines sports and donation, held annually as a marathon event (BEXCO–Gwangandaegyo–Gwangalli section) with around 20,000 participants contributing through registration fees.

The Public Kids Café will be established by remodeling the former Dongsan Daycare Center, a closed daycare facility located in Yongho-dong, Nam-gu.

As a first step toward the project, the city held a collaboration meeting yesterday (October 16) at 11:20 a.m. in the city hall’s small conference room with Nam-gu District and the ChildFund Korea Foundation to discuss full-scale implementation. During the meeting, the city expressed gratitude for the sponsorship and reviewed each organization’s roles and cooperative measures.

At the meeting, Busan Metropolitan City, Nam-gu District, and the ChildFund Korea Foundation agreed on the significance and necessity of the “Precious Like You” policy, which aims to make Busan a city where it is easy and fulfilling to raise children. After the meeting, the participants visited the planned project site—the former Dongsan Daycare Center—to share ideas for the direction of facility development.

Following this meeting, the city plans to begin practical steps such as commissioning design services to remodel and newly develop the closed daycare center.

The Public Kids Café is expected to transform the idle space of a closed daycare center into a venue for childcare, play, and eco-friendly education, as well as an intergenerational space connecting infants, children, adults, and the elderly.

The Public Kids Café is scheduled to open in the second half of 2026. It will feature indoor and outdoor play and experiential areas for infants and young children, along with eco-friendly education spaces linked to the “Our Neighborhood Social Value Management (ESG) Center.”

Meanwhile, last August, the city reopened the closed Yeongju Daycare Center after renovation as the fifth branch of the “Our Neighborhood Social Value Management (ESG) Center.” Similar centers utilizing closed daycare facilities are being developed in Nam-gu, Dong-gu, Buk-gu, and Busanjin-gu.

Furthermore, Busan Metropolitan City plans to continue expanding such public-private cooperation projects that repurpose local resources, including closed daycare centers, into family-friendly facilities. Through these initiatives, the city aims to provide children with safe spaces to play and grow healthily, while enhancing the public’s sense of the “Precious Like You” policy—where children and families can enjoy happiness throughout the city all day long.

Busan Metropolitan City has been implementing its child-rearing policy brand “Precious Like You” since 2024 to make Busan a “city where it is good to give birth and raise children.” The policy is based on three core strategies: all-day care, zero parental burden, and community play for all.

Park Seol-yeon, Director General of the Women and Family Affairs Bureau, stated, “This project is an exemplary case in which a closed daycare center’s unused space is revitalized as a childcare facility through public-private cooperation and corporate sponsorship. We expect it will reduce the parenting burden for parents while providing a space for intergenerational communication within the community.”