Charles Nicholls – Thrive Pet Healthcare

When Charles Nicholls joined Thrive Pet Healthcare in 2024 as senior director of construction and facilities, he stepped into a nationwide network of veterinary hospitals known for providing exceptional medical care while operating with an entrepreneurial, locally driven spirit. Thrive Pet Healthcare is an integrated veterinary network with more than 300 locations across the United States, offering primary, specialty, and emergency medicine with a focus on compassionate, accessible care for pets and the people who love them. For Nicholls, the opportunity was not simply about building hospitals. It was about creating environments that strengthen trust, elevate medical teams, and enhance the experience from the moment a client pulls into the parking lot.

From childhood, Nicholls had been captivated by the idea of creating places people want to be. His background in architecture, as a general contractor and as an owner’s representative, gave him a unique sensitivity to how spaces shape behavior, comfort, and connection. That perspective guides nearly every decision he makes at Thrive.

In his words, great design has never been just about aesthetics.

“From a very early age, my passion has always been creating spaces where people genuinely want to be in them, whether that’s a veterinary hospital, a retail environment or someone’s home,” he says.

He often points to something he has learned repeatedly in his career: the value of listening to the people who inhabit a space and the lessons that come from both successes and mistakes.

“Every project teaches you something new. The triumphs show you what to do again, and the missteps become some of the most valuable lessons in your toolkit.”

Carrying insights across industries has become a defining asset in his work. Nicholls spent years in retail and food service development, where balancing the front-of-house and back-of-house experience was essential to business success. He now sees a strong parallel in veterinary healthcare. The front of a hospital sets the emotional tone, shapes client comfort, and establishes trust, while the treatment, surgical, and support areas must enable efficient, fast-paced medical work.

He has found that hospitals function at their best when both worlds operate in harmony. That means designing warm, inviting waiting rooms alongside practical, durable clinical areas built for speed and accuracy. It also means seeing each square foot as an opportunity to support the team’s workflow.

Listening first

Thrive’s business model is built on partnership, autonomy, and a culture that values entrepreneurial thinking. Many local hospital teams have developed routines and layouts based on the spaces they inherited or adapted over time. Introducing a redesigned environment can be exciting, but it can also spark hesitation.

Nicholls believes the only way to bridge that gap is to begin with genuine, patient listening.

“There’s almost always more than one way to solve a problem, and collaboration is what turns a good design into the right one for the people who use it every day,” he says.

He sees this listening-based approach as essential to balancing Thrive’s nationwide standards with each hospital’s individuality. While consistent branding, safety requirements, and operational alignment are important, so is honoring the deep knowledge of the teams who understand their daily workflow best.

That philosophy has influenced how Nicholls evaluates and refines facility standards. One of the most meaningful concepts he carries into each project is the idea that a client’s first impression begins long before they walk inside.

The principle comes from his time working with McDonald’s, where curb appeal was treated as a core part of the customer experience.

“The idea is simple. You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” he explains.

Whether it is a well-kept entryway, a clean parking lot, or thoughtfully designed landscaping, the exterior communicates the level of care clients can expect within.

At Thrive, Nicholls incorporates that belief into maintenance guidelines and renovation planning. A polished, predictable exterior fosters comfort, reduces anxiety, and signals that the same level of attention will be applied to a pet’s medical care.

Planning for growth & right-sizing

Nicholls joined Thrive at a time of industry-wide reflection. After two decades of rapid expansion—accelerated further during the pandemic—veterinary organizations are now focusing heavily on right-sizing. For Thrive, that means ensuring current facilities have the right tools, staffing, and square footage to continue providing high-quality care.

The goal is not only expansion but optimization. Nicholls and his team assess hospitals based on workflows, long-term service demand, and the medical community’s needs in each market. The objective is to support teams with environments that minimize bottlenecks, increase efficiency, and elevate the client experience.

A standout example is the major expansion of Thrive’s Scottsdale specialty and emergency hospital. Already a significant facility, the hospital had reached its limits. With rising patient volume and growing specialty services, the team needed additional surgery suites, more emergency treatment space, and dedicated areas for specialty medicine.

When a neighboring building became available, the opportunity was almost ideal. Nicholls’s team renovated the space and connected the two structures with an exterior breezeway. The result was a more functional, spacious campus with a smoother operational flow.

He describes the outcome as one that benefited everyone—the medical teams gained room to work at their highest level, while clients gained a more comfortable and seamless experience.

Building the future of veterinary care

Nicholls sees collaboration as essential to everything Thrive builds or renovates. Architecture, engineering, and construction teams cannot operate independently of the hospital staff or the company’s broader mission. That alignment begins at the very start of every project and continues through the final punch list.

“In a single word: critical,” he says when describing the importance of coordination among architects, contractors, and veterinary professionals. He emphasizes that a seamless design process depends on open communication, shared expectations, and strong relationships across all partners.

Internally, his team works to ensure that every stakeholder receives the same information, direction, and clarity of purpose. That consistency reinforces Thrive’s mission to create workplaces where teams thrive and where exceptional care can be delivered without distraction.

Nicholls expects the next decade in veterinary healthcare to bring a wave of innovation, much like human medicine has experienced. He is already watching trends in mechanical and electrical systems, hospital automation, and the practical use of AI to support diagnostics and operations. The goal is not to chase novelty but to thoughtfully apply new tools in ways that genuinely improve care.

He stays in close contact with colleagues in human healthcare to understand emerging technologies and how they may translate into veterinary settings.

“What a veterinary hospital looked like two decades ago is worlds apart from what it looks like today,” he reflects. “And if the pace of change is any indication, the next 10 or 20 years will be even more transformative.”

As the industry evolves, Nicholls is focused on ensuring Thrive is prepared to meet that future with environments that support not just medical excellence but the well-being of teams and clients alike.

At the heart of his work is a belief that design is about more than structure and function. It is about creating places of comfort, healing, and trust—places where teams can do their best work, and families feel supported during some of their most vulnerable moments. For Charles Nicholls, that is what elevates construction and facilities management into something significant.