Seller of tractor trailers finds room to expand in Orlando

Tractor trailer sales and service company Maudlin International has chosen Orlando for its newest expansion, as the statewide enterprise sees opportunity in expanding its centralized location.

Maudlin, which sells new and used trucks and tractors and repairs them, has chosen a site at 2200 S. Division Ave., a few hundred yards from one of its existing facilities at 2300 S. Division Ave.

Emma Maury, who represents Maudlin as a construction manager with Lamm & Company Partners of Baldwin Park, declined to say if the existing facility will be closed once the new one is up and running.

Maudlin also has a sales facility at 4900 N. Orange Blossom Trail.

The new facility on Division Avenue would operate on 8.86 acres, with the building occupying about 77,500 square feet.

Project cost is still preliminary, but in the neighborhood of $6 million to $7 million. The new site is larger than the existing one and is seen as a way for Maudlin to expand.

Maudlin operates six large truck centers in Florida, and says drivers come from all over the country to buy new rigs or get them serviced at its locations in the state.

The company has submitted its development plans to the Orlando Municipal Planning Board for approval. A technical review hearing is scheduled for mid-April.

Construction would hopefully start in late May after final approvals, Maury said.

The new Maudlin property is owned by Tide Real Estate Holdings 1, LLC. One of the entity's two principles is John Maudlin, whose address is listed as the site of the existing truck center.

Tide Real Estate Holdings paid $3.3 million for the parcel in late October 2014, property records show.

The property, on the west side of Division Avenue between W. Kaley and W. Grant streets, and east of Interstate 4, is the former Merita Bread industrial site.

The new facility's sales showroom and corporate office section would occupy two stories. It has not been determined how many trucks the property would hold or how many could fit into its future service bays.

The proposed use of the land is consistent with the city's Industrial future land use designation for the area.

The site is generally ready for development although there are several piles of crushed concrete salvaged from the Merita Bread site, according to Orlando planning staff.

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