Florida Firm Buys 725 Acres in Key Industrial Market Near Tampa
Amazon, Other Big Players Targeting Interstate 4 Corridor

By Paul Owers
CoStar
Published: Dec 24, 2019

A firm linked to Parkway Property Investments paid $10 million for 725 acres in Lakeland, Florida, an emerging industrial market.

The deal for the Old Tampa Highway distribution site closed Dec. 19, Polk County property records show. The seller was FDG Lakeland Central Park, an entity tied to Florida East Coast Industries of Miami.

The land, between Orlando and Tampa, is near Interstate 4, Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 27. About 10 million people live within a two-hour drive of the site, according to Flagler Global Logistics, the listing brokerage that also has ties to the seller.

Officials from Orlando-based Parkway and Flagler Global Logistics did not return phone calls or emails for comment.

Lakeland is part of the fast-growing I-4 corridor and at the southwest tip of the so-called Golden Triangle, which includes Ocala and Orlando.

Amazon was one of the first major industrial players to enter Polk County in the past decade with a 1 million-square-foot distribution center that opened in 2014, according to Brian Alford, CoStar's director of market analytics for Central and West Florida. Since then, Walmart, Ikea, Best Buy, Nestlé and other firms have opened warehouses in the area.

Build-to-suit projects have been a large part of the growth, but recent demand from e-commerce companies has led to a flurry of speculative development across Lakeland, according to brokers and the latest report from CoStar analytics.

"Thus far, the projects have been rewarded with most leasing up prior to delivery," the report says.

Construction starts in Lakeland slowed in the second half of 2019, but new projects are in the pipeline for 2020, according to the report, which adds that the Polk County stock has increased by nearly 20% with more than 10 million square feet of completions in the past four years.

powers@costar.com @paulowers