Florida Truck Parking Financing: Loans on Operating Truck Yards

Truck Parking Loans Across Florida

Florida's freight runs on I-4, I-75, I-95, and the Turnpike, and nearly all of it enters the state by truck. The I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando is one of the densest distribution markets in the country, JAXPORT and the Jacksonville rail yards anchor the northeast, and Miami Dade's drayage market serves the port and the airport. Truck parking is short in all three.

We are a direct private lender, not a broker, and truck parking is a property type we fund on purpose through our outdoor storage financing program. A bank sends a Florida truck yard to an appraiser, the appraiser cannot find comparable sales for a fenced gravel lot, and the file dies in committee. We underwrite from what you paid, the zoning, and the rent you can document, and one person makes the decision.

Florida Markets We Lend In

• I-4 corridor and Polk County: Polk, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Osceola Counties. Lakeland, Plant City, and Auburndale sit at the center of the state's distribution network and have more warehouses than parking.
• Jacksonville: Duval, Clay, and Nassau Counties. Port drayage, chassis and container storage, and the I-10 and I-95 crossing keep monthly yards full.
• Orlando: Orange, Seminole, and Lake Counties, where carriers serving the tourism and construction economy need overnight and monthly parking.
• Tampa Bay: Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Manatee Counties around Port Tampa Bay and the I-75 and I-4 interchange.
• South Florida: Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. Medley, Hialeah, and the Doral area are the tightest truck parking markets in the state, and existing yards there trade at a premium.

Those are the markets where we see the most deals. We lend on truck yards anywhere in Florida with legal access and by right zoning.

What Qualifies

• Monthly truck parking lots, daily and overnight yards, and mixed truck and trailer yards. Operating yards get the most leverage; start ups with by right zoning qualify at a lower loan amount, with more once the yard is cash flowing.
• Converted sites with a prior truck use: former freight terminals, trucking company yards, towing yards, and contractor yards.
• Purchases, refinances, and cash out refinances. Business purpose, entity borrower, personal guaranty.
• Truck parking permitted by right, confirmed in writing by the county or city, or a clean path to that letter as a closing condition.
• Legal access, outside the floodplain and wetlands, and a clean site history or a clean Phase I environmental report.

What We Do Not Fund

• The build itself. We fund the property purchase, not fencing, gravel, lighting, or site work.
• Yards that depend on a conditional use permit, a variance, or a grandfathered use.
• Sites in a FEMA flood zone or wetlands, or with no legal access.
• Former junkyards, fuel stops, or repair shops without a clean Phase I.
• Loans above 65% of value, for any reason.

How Florida Deals Close

Florida is a judicial foreclosure state, so we underwrite access, resale, and documented income carefully. Closings run through a title company or a closing attorney, both are common. Flood zones matter more in Florida than anywhere else we lend: a yard in a FEMA special flood hazard area is outside the program no matter how well it rents, and we check the flood map on every deal before anything else. Local zoning is strict in the coastal counties and more flexible inland along I-4 and I-75.

We also make vacant land loans in Florida. See a funded Florida land loan for how our process runs, and read how truck parking lots get financed for the underwriting detail.