Orlando Industrial & Warehouse Market Report | Q2 2026

Orlando’s industrial warehouse market held steady on the headline numbers in Q2 2026 but slowed underneath. Vacancy was 8.4%, flat against Q1 as restated and down 60 basis points year over year. About 335,000 SF of new space delivered against 319,787 SF of net absorption. Year-to-date leasing volume of 1.603 million SF is running 69.6% below the same point in 2025. Absorption is still positive, but the leasing slowdown is the main warning sign.

The Q2 2026 data also show a market split by deal size and by submarket. Large-format demand has stalled. The quarter’s two largest deals were a 149,152 SF new lease and a 130,400 SF renewal, both well short of the bulk requirements that drove Orlando’s last growth cycle. Smaller and mid-sized deals are holding up, and the tightest major submarket carried most of the quarter’s absorption on its own.

Market Snapshot: Q2 2026

All figures on this page come from Cushman & Wakefield’s warehouse and manufacturing weighted series unless labelled otherwise. CBRE, which measures a different Orlando inventory, puts Q2 vacancy at 10.2%, roughly 180 basis points above C&W’s 8.4%. That gap reflects methodology, so compare like with like before benchmarking a specific building.

Rent Trends: Flat on the Quarter, Wide Gaps Between Submarkets

Average asking rent finished Q2 2026 at $9.52/SF/YR NNN, down $0.04 from $9.56 in Q1 as restated (C&W first published Q1 at $9.49). Orlando quotes rent annually, so compare this figure with other annual NNN rates, not monthly ones. With vacancy no longer improving and leasing down sharply, asking rents are likely to stay flat. Expect landlords to hold face rate and negotiate on concessions and term instead.

The spread between submarkets is the more useful signal. Among the four profiled below, weighted average asking rents run from $7.95/SF in Silver Star / Apopka to $10.03/SF in Lake Mary / Sanford. Vacancy runs the other way, from 13.1% to 3.3%, a gap of 980 basis points. Vacancy alone does not set price, though. Airport / Lake Nona asks $10.01/SF, almost level with Lake Mary / Sanford, despite 11.9% vacancy.

Construction Pipeline: Deliveries Slowed, Most Space Underway Is Unleased

Orlando has 3.093 million SF under construction against 128.76 million SF of existing inventory, and only 18.3% of that pipeline is preleased. Deliveries slowed to about 335,000 SF in Q2, roughly matching 319,787 SF of net absorption, after 1.33 million SF delivered in Q1. Only 14.7% of the 1.665 million SF delivered year to date was preleased. That unleased space, together with the pipeline, is where the vacancy risk sits.

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. Developers are still betting on Orlando’s long-run role in Central Florida distribution. That space will complete into a market where big-box leasing has already slowed, and that tension will shape the next several quarters.

Submarket Breakdown

Lake Mary / Sanford

Lake Mary / Sanford is the tightest major submarket in the metro at 3.3% vacancy, and its $10.03/SF/YR NNN weighted average asking rent is the highest of the four. It drove 67% of Q2 metro absorption on its own at +215,303 SF. Little new space 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 7.8% vacancy and $8.93/SF/YR NNN. It gave back 114,022 SF in Q2, the largest negative absorption in the metro. Older shallow-bay and multi-tenant stock at below-average rents 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 most of the metro’s new development. Vacancy is 11.9% with a weighted average asking rent of $10.01/SF/YR NNN. Waymo renewed 130,400 SF here in Q2, one of the metro’s two largest deals. 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 metro’s cheapest and highest-vacancy big-box node, with 22.6 million SF at 13.1% vacancy and $7.95/SF/YR NNN. Unisource Food Service Equipment signed the quarter’s largest new lease here at 149,152 SF. It is the clearest value play in the metro for cost-sensitive distribution and light manufacturing users who can work with the available building specs.

Co-Warehousing & Flexible Warehouse Space in Orlando

Neither Cushman & Wakefield nor CBRE published 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 leasing decline to slowing big-box demand, and the quarter’s smaller deals continued to close.

Co-warehousing and flexible warehouse product serves tenants who need operational space without a big-box commitment or a multi-year build-out. In Orlando that demand base is broad, which helps explain why smaller requirements have held up better than bulk logistics this cycle.

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 Momentum Has Stalled

Year-to-date leasing of 1.603 million SF is 69.6% below the same point last year. The two largest Q2 deals, a 149,152 SF new lease and a 130,400 SF renewal, were both well below bulk size. Until big-box demand returns, absorption will depend on a larger number of smaller deals.

2. Supply Is Still Landing Into a Softer Market

Orlando has delivered 1.665 million SF year to date, only 14.7% of it preleased, and 3.093 million SF remains under construction at 18.3% preleased. Projects that broke ground in 2026, including VenturePark Beachline II and III and Mahogany Pointe Logistics Park, will deliver into this same demand environment. Watch the preleasing rate on that pipeline more closely than the pipeline size itself.

3. The Metro Has Split in Two

Lake Mary / Sanford at 3.3% and Silver Star / Apopka at 13.1% behave like two separate markets under one metro headline. The blended vacancy rate says little about either 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 Q4 2026

Orlando closed the first half of 2026 with positive absorption, flat rents and flat vacancy, but leasing volume well below last year. That combination can break either way, and leasing volume will decide which.

Watch whether leasing volume recovers off the 1.603 million SF year-to-date pace. The 69.6% year-over-year decline is the biggest risk in this market. Without a clear improvement in Q3, the 3.093 million SF pipeline will deliver into thin demand.

Watch deliveries against absorption. Q2 was roughly balanced, with about 335,000 SF delivered against 319,787 SF absorbed. With 3.093 million SF under construction at 18.3% preleased, vacancy will rise when deliveries pick up unless absorption keeps pace.

Watch the concentration risk in Lake Mary / Sanford. The submarket supplied 67% of Q2 metro absorption and is already at 3.3% vacancy, so it has little room to repeat that. Airport / Lake Nona and Silver Star / Apopka will need to carry more of the second-half absorption.

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 Q2 2026 (warehouse and manufacturing weighted basis; source for all figures above except the labelled CBRE vacancy), CBRE Orlando Industrial Figures Q2 2026 (vacancy cross-check only; different inventory basis), WareCRE marketplace data (July 2026).