BKM Capital Partners and Kayne Anderson Real Estate have closed on a $103 million light-industrial portfolio in central Orlando, scooping up properties along the 33rd Street/McLeod and Silver Star corridors in a deal that's already being rebranded under a new name. The portfolio comes in roughly 95% occupied, with a 4.3-year weighted average lease term across its tenant base.
A Deal With Two Different Descriptions
According to Connect CRE, the acquisition covers four properties totaling 543,000 square feet, comprising seven buildings and 22 units with clear heights ranging from 16 to 28 feet and a 1-to-4,000-square-foot loading ratio. Brett Turner led the acquisition for BKM, working alongside Max Stone, while Rick Brugge of Cushman & Wakefield marketed the portfolio on behalf of the seller, per the same outlet. Two of the properties will join BKM's broader Gridline Orlando portfolio, while two others will operate as standalone assets, Connect CRE reports.
Other accounts of the same deal tell a somewhat different story. Institutional Real Estate, Inc. describes the purchase as a five-property portfolio spanning 489,891 square feet across 45 suites in nine buildings, while the Orlando Business Journal put the price at $100 million rather than $103 million. The discrepancies between property counts, square footage, and price have not been independently reconciled.
Gridline Orlando Takes Shape
Whichever count is accurate, BKM has moved forward with rebranding its holdings under the name Gridline Orlando, according to a statement from BKM Capital Partners. The firm says it has developed an extensive capital improvement plan to revitalize the assets, and BKM's own statement details a $7.4 million investment earmarked for fresh paint, signage, landscaping, HVAC work and roof replacements. The company also says the properties have collectively maintained an average occupancy of 98% over the past four years.
BKM and Kayne Anderson are also targeting a 33% mark-to-market rent increase across 75% of the portfolio's space as existing leases roll over, the firm's statement notes. The deal is part of a recently formed $1.5 billion joint venture between the two firms focused on light industrial real estate, according to Institutional Real Estate, Inc. With this purchase, BKM now holds 13 Central Florida properties totaling more than one million square feet, per Connect CRE.
Foundry Commercial Steps In To Lease
By August 2025, Foundry Commercial had been tapped to lead leasing for Gridline Orlando, which it described as nine small-bay industrial buildings in the 33rd Street/McLeod submarket. In its own release, Foundry Commercial put the portfolio at 489,891 square feet across five properties and 45 suites, with an average unit size of 18,800 square feet — figures that align with the Institutional Real Estate account rather than Connect CRE's reporting.
The appeal of the corridor comes down to scarcity. Rents in the 33rd Street/McLeod submarket climbed 49% over the past five years, compared with 35% for the Orlando metro overall, according to BKM's statement. The submarket has recorded no new deliveries since mid-2022 and currently has no projects under construction, the firm notes — a supply squeeze that landlords in tight-bay industrial space have leaned on to push rents higher.
A Mixed Picture for Orlando Industrial Space
The broader Orlando industrial market sends conflicting signals depending on which research firm you ask. CBRE reported vacancy edged up to 10.2% in the second quarter of 2026, rising from 10.1% the prior quarter and 9.6% a year earlier, alongside 252,000 square feet of positive net absorption and average asking rents of $10.29 per square foot. Newmark, by contrast, reported vacancy actually declined 28 basis points to 9.4% in the same quarter, with 467,043 square feet of positive absorption and rental rates slipping 1.5% to $11.08 per square foot, according to its market report.
Construction activity also diverges between the two trackers. CBRE counted 2.9 million square feet under construction and 362,000 square feet delivered during the second quarter, while Newmark put the total construction pipeline at just 931,030 square feet, down 10.1% quarter over quarter and 71.5% year over year.
Other Orlando Industrial Deals This Year
The Gridline Orlando purchase isn't the only industrial trade drawing attention in the metro this year. In July, Midtown Capital Partners acquired the five-building Cypress Park industrial park in Orlando's Southeast Orange submarket for $56.1 million, according to JLL, which represented seller Harbert Management Corporation in the deal. That property spans 256,838 square feet and was 99% leased to 26 tenants across nine industries at the time of sale, with clear heights of 20 to 22 feet and a mix of 45 dock-high doors and 18 drive-in or grade-level doors, per JLL.
Leasing activity elsewhere in the market has stayed brisk too. CBRE's Q2 2026 figures cite the quarter's largest industrial lease as a 105,000-square-foot commitment by a confidential tenant in Osceola County — another sign that demand for Central Florida warehouse space remains active even as vacancy and rent trends tell different stories depending on the source.
