The industrial real estate market in Central Florida showed minimal signs of improvement, with a ways to go toward recovery.  Seven of the area's 10 submarkets showed a better first-quarter net absorption than the previous year, meaning more vacant space was filled during the period when compared with first quarter 2009.

Bright spots among those submarkets were the Silver Star, 33rd street, Longwood/Lake Mary/Sanford and Central Orlando submarkets, which went from negative absorption last year, meaning the submarket had more vacated space that remained unleased, to positive absorption this year, meaning more space was leased.  However, half of the area's submarkets still had negative absorption. The overall Olando area's vacancy rate reached nearly 20 percent  in the first quarter this year, compared with 15 percent in the first quarter 2009.