Lake Nona encompasses approximately 1.3 million square feet of office space, all Class A, with more on the way. As Orlando continues to fight to regain its footing post-pandemic, Lake Nona’s roughly 15-year-old office segment is performing very well. The master-planned community’s total office vacancy rate of just 7.3 percent in the first quarter of 2023 was less than half that of the Class A stock in metropolitan Orlando, which recorded a total vacancy rate of 14.7 percent, according to research from JLL. And while the metro area experienced negative net absorption, Lake Nona posted positive net absorption.Â
So, what is Lake Nona’s secret sauce? Lake Nona isn’t the only live-work-play offering in Orlando, but it does provide some comparative advantages such as a coveted location just off the Orlando Beltway and fewer than 10 minutes from Orlando International Airport. And there’s the mixed-density retail and autonomous shuttle program at Lake Nona that are a draw for the more than 12,000 onsite employees, as are the benefits of being located in the United States’ very first Cisco Smart + Connected community.
