Ironmark Capital Advisory is a Florida brokerage specializing in industrial outdoor storage — low-coverage industrial property where the yard, not the building, produces the income. From our Central Florida base we advise yard owners, investors, and occupiers statewide: what your property is worth, how it’s positioned against the institutional bid, and whether holding, optimizing, refinancing, or selling is the right next move. You don’t have to be a seller to want that answer — most of the owners we work with aren’t.
What Counts as IOS
Industrial outdoor storage is low-coverage industrial: building footprint typically under 20% of the site, with the land itself doing the work. The main subtypes:
- Trailer drop lots & truck yards — secure yards where carriers stage detached trailers between hauls (dedicated coverage: Florida truck yards & trailer parking)
- Container & chassis yards — off-terminal storage near ports and intermodal ramps
- Laydown yards — open storage for contractors’ materials, pipe, steel, and equipment
- Fleet & equipment parking — trucks, vans, and heavy machinery for fleet operators and rental companies
- Contractor yards — a shop or small office plus working yard
- Truck terminals & industrial service facilities (ISF) — cross-dock buildings or maintenance shops on large parcels
If your property is any of these — or industrial land that could become one — it trades in a different market than it did five years ago.
Who’s Buying — and Why It’s Institutional Now
| Buyer | Activity |
|---|---|
| Alterra IOS | The sector’s most active acquirer (104 acquisitions in 2025) — 35 Central Florida properties on 145 usable acres, including 12 in the Orlando MSA |
| Jadian (JIOS) | Among the sector’s most heavily capitalized platforms: ~$2.6B AUM, a $231M Blackstone credit facility, and a stated $2B IOS deployment plan; May 2026 off-market portfolio buy included Jacksonville and Tampa yards |
| Zenith IOS (J.P. Morgan JV) | Orlando (Taft, Ocoee), Jacksonville, Clearwater; $700M second venture with J.P. Morgan Asset Management |
| Realterm | $25M Pompano Beach acquisition (May 2025); Medley truck terminal |
| Dalfen Industrial | Three recent Orlando-MSA buys — Sanford plus two Apopka sites, including two closed in December 2025 |
| Catalyst, Outpost, IOV | Catalyst holds four Orlando yards; Outpost paid $52.1M for a single Miami yard; IOV is converting 38 acres in Davie into 280 trailer positions |
The demand math is simple: Port Everglades moved a record 1.17 million TEUs in FY2025, PortMiami handled 1.09 million (FY2024), JAXPORT roughly 1.4 million per its own reporting — and every container needs yard space to stage, park, and reposition. Supply is moving the other way: land zoned for outdoor storage has shrunk for two decades as municipalities favor tax-richer uses, and — particularly in South Florida — existing yards keep converting to warehouses.
What Florida Yards Are Worth
First, how this market actually quotes: IOS leases are priced per acre per month, triple-net — not per square foot. And the single most important thing to understand about yard values:
Sale pricing per acre (2024–2025 trades; sale and lease data below: IOS List and IOS YardDogs market reports):
| Market | Recent pricing |
|---|---|
| Orlando MSA | $1.06M–$1.36M/acre core trades (Sanford, Old Winter Garden Rd, Altamonte Springs); one credit-tenant asset with a substantial ~35,000 SF building component reached $2.61M/acre (Shader Rd, Sept 2025 — not a pure-yard comp) |
| Tampa Bay | ~$925K/acre average (2025), up ~28% from 2023; range $600K–$1M+ |
| Miami-Dade / Broward | $3M+/acre for prime port- and airport-adjacent sites |
| Jacksonville | $600K–$800K/acre, premium along I-10 |
Lease rates ($/acre/month, NNN): published Orlando comps run from a $7,000 asking rate (2025) to a $10,600 Orlando Central Park comp average (2023); Tampa yards lease at $5,000–$10,000; Jacksonville averages roughly $4,000 with 6–10% annual growth. Escalations of 3%+ are standard. Miami-Dade rates are rarely published — we track them deal-by-deal.
The Property Positioning Analysis
Most owners we advise aren’t sellers — they’re holders. Holding is exactly when you should know your position, because every good decision you’ll eventually make (refinance and cash out, optimize the yard, sell, 1031 into the next asset) starts with facts you gather before you’re under pressure.
A Property Positioning Analysis is an exhaustive read on where your property stands:
- The asset: aerial and site review, zoning, wetlands and environmental constraints, usable versus gross acreage, improvement condition
- The market: lease and sale comps for your submarket, who’s buying assets like yours right now, how core your location is to ports, interstates, and labor
- Your position: is the property under-optimized? Is there a refinance-and-hold case? What would a disposition or 1031 exchange actually look like at today’s bid?
Confidential, no obligation, and no listing pitch attached. Owners use it to stay informed; some discover they’re sitting on more than they thought.
Know where your property stands.
Request a Property Positioning Analysis — a confidential, data-driven read on your asset’s value, market position, and options. Prepared by SIOR-designated principals. No obligation, no pressure to sell.
Orlando & Central Florida: The Market We Watch Closest
Ironmark’s home market is the most institutionally contested IOS market in the state:
- Every major platform is buying here. Alterra (12 Orlando-MSA properties), Dalfen (three recent buys), Zenith (Taft and Ocoee), Catalyst (four yards), Jadian (North Orange Blossom Trail). Recent trades: Sanford at $1.36M/acre (May 2025), Old Winter Garden Rd at $1.16M/acre, Altamonte Springs at $1.06M/acre (Dec 2025).
- The worst truck-parking deficit in Florida. FDOT’s statewide study ranked Orlando first, and the I-4 corridor offers roughly 90 public truck spaces against ~18,000 trucks per day. The $180M federal fix underway adds highway rest capacity — not the commercial yard space fleets lease. Private yards stay scarce.
- Demand keeps compounding. The Orlando region passed 2.95 million people in 2025, growing by roughly 725 residents a week, and led the nation in combined job, population, and GDP growth (Orlando Economic Partnership).
We publish what we can source; what isn’t published, we track deal-by-deal across Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Lake counties.
How Ironmark Works IOS
- Owners (most of our clients): you don’t need to be selling. A Property Positioning Analysis tells you where your asset stands — so when the unsolicited offer arrives, you already know the answer
- Sellers: confidential valuations, access to the institutional buyer pool above, marketed or off-market processes
- Landlords: rate-setting from live comps, tenant screening, NNN structuring with escalations
- Buyers & investors: acquisition sourcing including off-market yards, zoning and site due diligence, buy-box representation
- Land owners: highest-and-best-use analysis — sometimes “excess land” is an IOS asset hiding in plain sight
Frequently Asked Questions
What is industrial outdoor storage (IOS)?
IOS is low-coverage industrial real estate where the land, not a building, produces the income: fenced, paved or stabilized yards used for truck parking, trailer storage, containers, equipment, and materials. Building coverage typically runs under 20% of the site.
What does “low coverage” mean in industrial real estate?
Low coverage means the building footprint occupies a small share of the parcel — typically under 20%. In IOS, that’s a feature: the yard is the revenue driver, and investors pay for usable, secured land rather than square footage under roof.
How are IOS leases structured?
Per acre per month, triple-net (NNN) — the tenant covers taxes, insurance, and maintenance — with annual escalations of 3% or more now standard. Quoting IOS by the square foot is a sign someone doesn’t trade in this market.
What do Orlando yards lease for per acre?
Published Orlando comps range from roughly $7,000 to $10,600 per acre per month NNN (IOS List comps, 2023–2025). Attributes — paving, fencing, power, drainage — and how core the location is move rates significantly, even within the same submarket.
What is a Florida truck yard worth per acre?
Recent trades (IOS List / IOS YardDogs market data): $1.06M–$1.36M per acre in the Orlando MSA, ~$925K average in Tampa (range $600K–$1M+), $600K–$800K in Jacksonville, and $3M+ for prime Miami-Dade and Broward sites. Improvements, zoning, and core proximity can put two nearby yards hundreds of thousands apart — get a parcel-specific analysis.
Who is buying IOS in Florida?
Institutional platforms: Alterra IOS (the most active acquirer, 104 buys in 2025), Jadian’s JIOS (~$2.6B AUM, deploying $2B into the sector), Zenith IOS (a J.P. Morgan venture), Realterm, Dalfen, Catalyst, and Outpost — alongside private investors and owner-users.
How many trailers fit on an acre?
As a planning rule of thumb, roughly 30–35 positions per acre is the realistic upper limit once drive lanes and turning radii are accounted for (industry layout guides). Parcel shape, gate placement, and circulation matter as much as raw acreage.
Does paving, fencing, and lighting increase a yard’s value?
Substantially. Improved yards (paved, fenced, lit, drained) lease and sell at meaningful premiums to raw or stabilized-gravel sites — heavy-duty asphalt alone runs roughly $3–$7 per square foot to create (published cost data), and buyers pay for what they don’t have to build.
What cap rates does IOS trade at?
Generally 50–150 basis points above comparable traditional industrial, with stabilized in-place yields commonly in the 6–8% range. Trophy, credit-tenant, infill sites trade tighter.
Why is IOS vacancy so low?
National IOS vacancy sits near 2.5% (CBRE, Q4 2025) because zoned supply keeps shrinking — municipalities rarely approve new outdoor storage, and existing yards keep converting to warehouses — while port volumes and e-commerce keep demand climbing. Rents are up 123% since 2020 as a result (Newmark).
Is truck parking the same as IOS?
Truck and trailer parking is the most common IOS use, but the class also includes container yards, laydown yards, contractor yards, and industrial service facilities.
What zoning allows outdoor storage in Florida?
It varies by county and city — heavier industrial districts generally permit it, but by-right versus conditional-use treatment differs parcel to parcel, and some jurisdictions attach screening or other conditions. We review zoning as part of every Property Positioning Analysis rather than generalizing.
Should I sell my yard now or keep leasing it?
It depends on your basis, tenancy, improvement level, and what the institutional bid looks like for your specific parcel — which is exactly what a Property Positioning Analysis answers. For many owners in today’s market, a well-structured hold with escalating NNN leases beats a sale; for others, the current bid is the best exit they’ll see. The point is to decide from facts.
What is a Property Positioning Analysis?
A confidential, no-obligation study of a property’s market position: zoning and environmental constraints, usable acreage, lease and sale comps, active buyer demand for the asset type, and the owner’s realistic options — optimize, refinance, hold, sell, or 1031. Ironmark prepares them for Florida industrial and IOS owners at no charge.
Know where your property stands — request your analysis →
Sources cited on this page: CBRE Q4 2025 IOS data; Newmark “Lots to Gain”; IOS List (deal records & Top IOS Owners 2025); IOS YardDogs market reports (2025); The Real Deal; Commercial Observer; GlobeNewswire/Businesswire releases (Alterra); ULI Urban Land; ComReal research; FDOT truck parking studies; Port Everglades, PortMiami and JAXPORT reporting; Orlando Economic Partnership.