08/31/2026
Retail leasing across Orlando is holding up, but the deals getting done look different than they used to.
Tenants leased roughly 3.8 million square feet of retail space in the Orlando area over the past year. Leasing volume was down about 7% from the year before, but the average lease size grew. The reason isn't fading demand. It's rising costs.
FCPG's Jeré Matheny broke down the shift for CoStar. Construction, tenant improvement, insurance, and labor costs are changing what landlords can offer and what tenants can afford to build out. That's pushing more attention toward high-visibility, well-located space, while lower-quality sites need bigger concessions to compete.
For tenants: expect more negotiation on deal terms, not just rent. For landlords: how a space looks and where it sits now weighs heavily on lending and pricing decisions.
Source: Retail space scarcity intensifies competition across Orlando, Florida, CoStar