Pallets in Orange County: Orlando, the airport and Apopka

Three submarkets, one county

In the first quarter of 2025, Orlando's three largest industrial submarkets were Airport and Lake Nona, Orlando Central Park and South Park, and Silver Star and Apopka. All three sit in Orange County. The metro's industrial inventory stood at 126,225,833 square feet that quarter, at 8.5 percent vacancy.

The county at a glance

ZIP codes the county pages cover

32801, 32803, 32805, 32807, 32809, 32811, 32812, 32819, 32822, 32824, 32827, 32837, 32839, 32703, 32712, 34761 and 34787.

Roads that sort the county

Florida's Turnpike crosses the county from the south, meeting SR 417 at exit 251, SR 528 at exit 254, I-4 at exit 259, SR 408 at exit 265 and SR 429 at exit 267A in Ocoee, and it runs on to SR 50 at exit 272. Between the SR 408 and SR 429 interchanges it widens to twelve lanes. SR 528, the Beachline Expressway, and SR 417 both serve the airport. Between them they move trucks from the infill districts to the Turnpike, the airport and I-4 without crossing downtown. In the northwest corner the Wekiva Parkway, opened in January 2024, runs from Apopka to I-4 in Sanford.

Free trade zone status

Foreign Trade Zone 42, designated in 1978, has the airport as its grantee, according to an air cargo trade report. The report does not give the zone's boundary. A zone lets imported goods be stored or handled with duties deferred. Which buildings use it is not stated in the sources.

Silver Star Road and Apopka

The Silver Star and Apopka submarket is the third of Orlando's three largest, covering the northwest of Orange County: nurseries and building materials, light manufacturing and distribution, all along and around Silver Star Road.

Mixed industry

Nurseries and foliage

The foliage trade around Apopka, where a 2009 county report counted over 4,000 acres of nurseries.

Building materials

Dense, heavy loads and a stream of pallets that break.

Light manufacturing

Component and finished-goods shipments on 48 x 40 stock.

Distribution

General warehousing that serves the northwest suburbs.

ZIP codes

32808, 32818, 32703, 32712 and 34761. The Apopka ZIPs have their own city page.

Following Silver Star Road east

Silver Star Road is SR 438. It begins at SR 429 in Ocoee, runs east through the unincorporated community of Pine Hills, widens to six lanes and meets SR 416, a short spur through the industrial parts of Fairvilla. From that interchange SR 429 reaches the Turnpike at exit 267A to the south, and to the north it meets US 441 and the start of the Apopka expressway. The road is a working street with warehouses, nurseries and light industry on its edges, not a freight corridor.

Mixed districts need mixed descriptions

A district with nurseries, building material yards and warehouses produces three different piles in one afternoon. A pallet from a bag-cement supplier is heavy-duty and often broken. One from a plant grower is lighter and wet. One from a distributor is standard 48 x 40 and dry. A request that groups them as one pile hides the value of the good stock, so describe each pile in a line.

Reading the district off a map

Three different road types meet in the northwest corner of Orange County: a six-lane state road in Silver Star, a four-lane US highway in Apopka and a limited-access toll road beyond. A pallet pile near one is reached from a different side than a pile near another, so name the road and the cross street rather than the city alone.