Orlando Industrial & Warehouse Market Report | Q3 2026

Orlando’s industrial market softened on vacancy in Q3 2026 but showed signs of life in leasing. Vacancy rose to 8.7%, 50 basis points above a year earlier, as new supply outpaced 126,786 SF of net absorption. Large deals returned, led by 575,343 SF and 330,000 SF leases in Silver Star / Apopka, and asking rents rose to $9.81/SF/yr NNN. The risk is the pipeline. Nearly 3.7 million SF is under construction and only 1.7% of it is preleased.

The Q3 2026 data also show a market split by submarket. Silver Star / Apopka produced 64.7% of the year’s absorption, while Airport / Lake Nona and Orlando Central Park have posted negative absorption this year. Most new construction is in Airport / Lake Nona, so its lease-up will decide where metro vacancy goes next.

Market Snapshot: Q3 2026

All figures on this page come from Cushman & Wakefield’s Orlando industrial statistics, which cover manufacturing, office service and warehouse/distribution space, unless labelled otherwise. C&W’s Q3 national tables restate Q2 vacancy to 8.6% and Q2 net absorption to 302,882 SF. Other brokers measure a different Orlando inventory, so compare like with like before benchmarking a specific building.

Rent Trends: Up 3.0% on the Quarter, Wide Gaps Between Submarkets

Average asking rent finished Q3 2026 at $9.81/SF/YR NNN, up from $9.52 in Q2 and 6.7% above a year earlier, and still below the $10.34 peak of late 2023. Orlando quotes rent annually, so compare this figure with other annual NNN rates, not monthly ones. C&W credits population growth, an expanding consumer base and Orlando’s place in Central Florida’s logistics network. Manufacturing rents grew fastest, up 9.3% on the year to $12.29/SF.

The spread between submarkets is the more useful signal. Among the four profiled below, weighted average asking rents run from $8.81/SF in Silver Star / Apopka to $10.21/SF in Airport / Lake Nona. Vacancy alone does not set price. Airport / Lake Nona has the highest rent of the four despite 12.1% vacancy, while Lake Mary / Sanford asks $10.02/SF at 3.0% vacancy.

Construction Pipeline: 3.7M SF Underway, Almost None of It Preleased

Orlando has nearly 3.7 million SF under construction against 129.0 million SF of existing inventory, and only 1.7% of that pipeline is preleased. Nearly 1.9 million SF has delivered year to date, all of it warehouse/distribution space, and 23.7% was preleased, including 116,000 SF occupied by PHD Games and Native Vanilla at 2551 McCraken Road. C&W lists the 972,079 SF building at 9822-9876 Air Commerce Pkwy, with Sun-Tek Manufacturing as major tenant, among the quarter’s key completions.

New projects are still starting. VenturePark Beachline II and III (nearly 748,000 SF combined) and Mahogany Pointe Logistics Park (675,000 SF) broke ground in Airport / Lake Nona in 2026, and C&W says Central Florida has the most projects underway in the state. Airport / Lake Nona holds about 3.4 million SF of the pipeline, so its lease-up will shape metro vacancy over the next several quarters.

Submarket Breakdown

Lake Mary / Sanford

Lake Mary / Sanford is among the tightest submarkets in the metro at 3.0% vacancy, and its $10.02/SF/YR NNN weighted average asking rent is the second-highest of the four. It absorbed 33,025 SF in Q3 and 263,184 SF year to date. Only 53,440 SF is under construction here, so tenants should expect few options and minimal concession room.

Orlando Central Park / SouthPark

This legacy infill submarket covers 22.2 million SF at 8.5% vacancy and $9.30/SF/YR NNN. It gave back 155,605 SF in Q3, the largest negative absorption in the metro, and its vacancy is up 340 basis points on the year. American Industrial Technologies leased 187,196 SF at 2702 Directors Row, and 6800 Kingspointe Parkway (172,400 SF) sold for $27.4M, or $159/SF. Older shallow-bay and multi-tenant stock makes it a value option for tenants who put central access ahead of modern clear heights and dock ratios.

Airport / Lake Nona

Airport / Lake Nona is Orlando’s main growth corridor, with 25.6 million SF of inventory and about 3.4 million SF under construction, most of the metro’s pipeline. Vacancy rose 360 basis points on the year to 12.1%, with a weighted average asking rent of $10.21/SF/YR NNN. A confidential tenant leased the 219,000 SF building at 7485 Hazeltine National Dr. High vacancy and an active pipeline give tenants the best mix of modern product and leverage in Orlando.

Silver Star / Apopka

Silver Star / Apopka is the cheapest of the four profiled submarkets and the metro’s absorption leader, with 22.6 million SF at 12.2% vacancy and $8.81/SF/YR NNN. It produced 64.7% of the metro’s year-to-date absorption, including Ponderosa Wood’s 136,130 SF move-in in Q3, and landed the quarter’s two largest leases, WPT Capital Advisors (575,343 SF) and Gofo Express (330,000 SF) on Apopka Logistics Parkway. 3600-3802 Silver Star Road (279,440 SF) sold for $58.6M, or $210/SF.

Co-Warehousing & Flexible Warehouse Space in Orlando

Cushman & Wakefield did not publish a sub-50,000 SF breakout for Orlando this quarter, so the read on small-bay and flexible space is qualitative. C&W attributes the year’s leasing decline to slower big-box demand.

Co-warehousing and flexible warehouse product serves tenants who need operational space without a big-box commitment or a multi-year build-out.

Orlando’s flexible-space users range from theme park and hospitality suppliers that need staging and storage to food and beverage distributors supplying the tourism economy. E-commerce operators covering Central Florida, contractors and building trades, and medical device and life sciences suppliers near Lake Nona round out the base.

Browse available co-warehousing and small-bay listings on WareCRE’s Orlando marketplace.

Key Trends to Watch

1. Big-Box Deals Came Back in Q3

WPT Capital Advisors’ 575,343 SF lease and Gofo Express’s 330,000 SF lease, both on Apopka Logistics Parkway, were the quarter’s largest deals. Year-to-date leasing of 4.0 million SF is still 40.3% below 2025, though C&W notes the first half of 2025 included outliers such as Ryder’s 1.2 million SF deal. If the new leases turn into move-ins, absorption should pick up.

2. Supply Is Still Landing Into a Softer Market

Orlando has delivered nearly 1.9 million SF year to date, 23.7% of it preleased, and nearly 3.7 million SF remains under construction at 1.7% preleased. C&W expects the pipeline to keep pushing vacancy up in the coming quarters. Watch preleasing on VenturePark Beachline and Mahogany Pointe more closely than the pipeline size itself.

3. The Metro Has Split in Two

Silver Star / Apopka has absorbed 441,379 SF this year while Orlando Central Park and Airport / Lake Nona are negative. Lake Mary / Sanford at 3.0% and West Orange / Winter Garden at 16.0% show how wide the range is. The blended vacancy rate says little about any one submarket for site selection. For the national view of this gap by building size, see Small-Bay vs. Big-Box: What the Vacancy Gap Means.

4. The Central Florida Distribution Case Is Unchanged

Orlando’s structural case has not changed with the cycle. Its central position in Florida lets occupiers serve both the Tampa and Miami corridors from one location. Theme parks, hospitality and the Lake Nona life sciences cluster also generate warehouse demand that does not depend on consumer goods flow alone. That case supports the long-run pipeline even as near-term leasing softens. For related demand-side context, see How Tariffs Are Reshaping Warehouse Demand in 2026.

Outlook: What to Watch in Early 2027

Orlando enters the last quarter of 2026 with rising vacancy, rising rents and a pipeline that is almost entirely unleased. Leasing and preleasing will decide which way the market breaks.

Watch preleasing on the 3.7 million SF pipeline. At 1.7% preleased, the pipeline is the biggest risk in this market, and C&W expects it to keep pushing vacancy up in the coming quarters.

Watch absorption against deliveries. Q3 absorption was 126,786 SF. If the large Q3 leases in Silver Star / Apopka turn into move-ins, absorption should improve; if not, new supply will push vacancy further above 8.7%.

Watch Airport / Lake Nona. It holds most of the pipeline, and its vacancy is already up 360 basis points on the year. Its lease-up will shape the metro rate.

For tenants, timing favors you in the higher-vacancy nodes. For owners, fast lease-up of uncommitted space matters more than face rate.

Data sources: Cushman & Wakefield Orlando MarketBeat Q3 2026 (all industrial product types it tracks; source for all figures above); Cushman & Wakefield U.S. Industrial MarketBeat Q3 2026 (restated Q2 2026 and year-ago figures); WareCRE marketplace data. Each report reflects the most recent vacancy, rental, and construction data available at the time of publication. We refresh our reports as new market data is released, and we’re continually expanding coverage to additional metros.