Tampa-Orlando Corridor Is Major Growth Engine

ORLANDO—As a cohesive metropolitan region, the Tampa-Orlando Corridor now is as large as the Atlanta metro area, a panelist said at Thursday’s RealShare Central Florida conference here. That portends new opportunities for growth, as the region becomes a prime target for corporate relocations and broader opportunities for commercial real estate that were unheard of before the Great Recession.

The differences in the two markets work out in Florida’s favor, said Larry Richey, senior managing director and Florida market leader for Cushman & Wakefield. Atlanta’s market is spread out over 20 counties, including one all the way over in Alabama. The Central Florida market, on the other hand, is contained in 12 to 15 counties tightly packed from coast to coast. Another key point, he said, is that Atlanta is the nation’s 12^th-largest television market. Tampa-St. Petersburg by itself is the 13^th-largest, not including Orlando’s TV market, which extends across to Daytona Beach and down to Melbourne and also is in the top 20.