Now Leesburg officials are scurrying to salvage the deal that would generate annual property taxes of $248,000. Leesburg was offering the 200 acres for $1.6 million or $8,000 per acre (18 cents per sf). Wal-Mart was planning to build the center for under $50 per sf. The city plans to suggest other privately-held sites to the retailer over the next few weeks.

But that may be too late, say industry observers. Wal-Mart already plans to build a $40-million, 952,380-sf distribution center that would employ 600 workers in Baker County, near Jacksonville, FL, 230 miles northeast of Downtown Orlando. Wal-Mart's Leesburg plant would have employed 600 workers initially and another 600 over three years. The world's largest retailer, based in Bentonville, AR, may still build in the metro Orlando market, industry observers say.

"You've got to remember that Florida is made up of three distinctly different geographic, cultural and business markets," Robin L. Webb, vice president/managing principal of Arvida Realty Services Inc. in Winter Park, FL. tells GlobeSt.com. "If Wal-Mart wants to play in each of those markets, and they're certainly into them at the moment, then they will need to have a distribution hub in each market to make their operation cost-effective."

At the moment, though, Wal-Mart is walking away from a city-state economic incentives package valued at $6.4 million. It includes an exemption from $2.4 million in property improvement taxes to the sprayfield over the next 10 years. Straight cash gifts totaling $1.8 million would come from the city and state. Carter & Burger Inc. of Fort Worth, TX represents the potential buyer of the city-owned land.

Kmart has Central Florida's largest distribution center, a 1.5 million-sf complex in Ocala, FL, 80 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.