ORLANDO—Orlando is still flying under the radar in regards to tech hubs, but there's a scene brewing here with the University of Central Florida expansion. That's the take from Bobby Palta, a vice president with CBRE.
GlobeSt.com caught up with Palta to talk about retail trends—and how Orlando's emerging technology hub fits into the picture—in part one of this exclusive interview. Be sure to come back to this afternoon's Southeast edition to hear more from Palta about hot retail submarkets and categories.
GlobeSt.com: What's the state of Orlando retail?
Palta: Orlando has one of the fastest-growing economies in Florida. I'm as busy as I've ever been in Orlando in 10 years in the business, even more than before the recession.
Florida tends to have lower lows and higher highs than the rest of the country because our economy is tourism based, and tourism helped us come back strongly. The new Harry Potter attraction recently opened at Universal Studios, and attractions like that create a huge amount of buzz so many people will travel here and spend money. But we've also seen a great deal of non-tourism job growth recently.
There have been some big announcements from Fortune 500 firms. For example, Verizon is moving its whole finance operations hub from New Jersey to Lake Mary, and Ernst & Young is bringing its back office operations here as well.
GlobeSt.com: Is it fair to say Orlando developing into a new technology hub?
Palta: Orlando is still flying under the radar in regards to tech hubs, but there's a scene brewing here with the University of Central Florida expansion. The tech growth has been tremendous as a result of that.
Lake Nona is seeing a building boom. The Lake Nona Medical City is starting on its next stage of development, including a lineup of office, hotel and retail buildings to support the community's medical school, hospitals and research centers.
GlobeSt.com: Discuss your site selection process when you're working with some of the larger national tenants.
Palta: The process starts by getting people familiar with the Orlando market. We have way more retail here than any 2 million person market should have on account of tourism, the upscale Southwest side of Orlando, as well as a strong core and Winter Park, which is our High Street area.
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