E-Commerce Is Part of Central Florida’s Commercial Warehouse Boom

Technology and our use of technology is changing the face of retail as we know it. As consumers are leaning towards smartphone technologies and e-commerce retail sites such as Amazon and Walmart, retailers are looking to commercial warehousing and leasing commercial property to better compete in the retail market and provide a direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales model. In fact, the next five years are expected to see so much e-commerce growth that retailers will soon need up to 25 million square meters in extra retail space to effectively store and distribute their products.

Lakeland is strategically ideal for this retail commercial warehouse shift. Located in the center of Florida, Lakeland is within a 100-mile radius of Central Florida’s population of 9 million people. This puts it in the middle of a quickly growing e-commerce environment, with big and small names alike joining the excitement. Some of the bigger names in the local commercial warehousing market include Amazon, Walmart, and Fedex. Walmart is among the largest, with plans to build a $200 million distribution warehouse space within the next few years.

The warehouse space development boom doesn’t just mean good news for commercial real estate development. Right now, the industrial warehouse space leasing and storage industry employs approximately 166,000 individuals in the United States. The e-commerce warehouse acquisition increase means even more jobs. And Central Florida is part of this phenomenon with Amazon building a 1 million square foot retail fulfillment commercial warehouse in the heart of Lakeland.

The United States’ storage and commercial warehouse leasing industry is worth just over $26 billion. In the face of booming commercial warehouse growth, this industry is only expected to increase in worth, and this surge is further stimulating the already blossoming economy in the Lakeland area.