Orlando markets stay hot, 3 brokerage reports show.(Florida real estate markets)

ORLANDO - If you didn't know by now that metro Orlando's office, industrial, investment and retail real estate markets are among the most vibrant in the country, you have been sleeping with the bears in the Ocala National Forest.

The Orlando area's current market strength is reinforced by three separate recaps of the market's 1998 performance by Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc., Trammell Crow North Florida and Rebman Properties Inc.

The reports were authored by Larry A. Richey, vice president of Cushman & Wakefield; Frank W. Herring Jr., managing director of Trammell Crow; and Greg Rebman of Rebman Properties.

Highlights of the three reports:

Cushman & Wakefield Central Business District (downtown Orlando)

* The two new office towers under construction, Capital Plaza 2 and CNL Center. will bring 669,675 square feet of new space to this submarket by year's end or first quarter 2000. That event will mark the first downtown office construction in 10 years.

* Class "A" rents continue to rise (heading for the $28-to-$30-per-square-foot level for new space), while sublease opportunities continue to disappear.

Maitland

* The lack of land west of Interstate 4 has …