By May of 2022, Marion County is expected to add approximately five million feet worth of warehouse space. The move comes as construction companies are banking on the county to become the distribution lynchpin of the Sunshine State. The expansion is going to mean that the county will more than double the amoung of space that is currently occupied by distribution centers.
The Ocala area is especially appealing for this purpose because of where it's situated, in perhaps the most central location as is possible in the state of Florida. With I-75 running through Ocala, and with the county seat located less than a hundred miles away from I-10, the choice becomes an optimal one for the transportation of goods across the state- and beyond.
"What we have going on here is geography at work," commented Mark Davis, the president of the Mid-Florida Regional Manufacturing Association board. "If you look at it closely, Ocala is halfway between Atlanta and Miami."
Admittedly, the choice to expand on the space designated for distribution centers is not based on anything concrete. The term that some are using to describe this choice is "building on spec," which is an abbreviation for speculation. But because building on spec has seen success around the state already, officials believe that the trend is about to catch fire and spread throughout the United States.
