Home Depot buys Ocala site for new 134,000-square-foot store

Home Depot closed on a 22.62-acre Ocala parcel for $4,644,500 on June 26, putting a new 134,000-square-foot warehouse store on track for southwest Ocala and signaling another Florida market move with staffing and logistics implications.

The site at 8445 SW 80th Street will hold a 106,651-square-foot main retail building and a 28,156-square-foot outdoor garden center. In Home Depot terms, that size points to more than shelves and square footage. A store built for both indoor aisles and outdoor yard sales usually means a heavier need for freight, garden, lumber, merchandising, lot support, and the kind of pro desk muscle that keeps contractors coming back when seasonal rushes hit.

Deed records filed with the Marion County Clerk of Courts show On Top of the World Communities LLC sold the land to Home Depot USA Inc. The purchase covered a 13.25-acre portion of the larger 22.62-acre parcel, a detail that suggests the company is carving out a store footprint inside a broader development pattern rather than planting a stand-alone box at the edge of town.

The project already cleared a major hurdle last fall, when the Marion County Board of County Commissioners approved a special use permit on Nov. 18, 2025, by a 4-1 vote. Commission Chairman Carl Zalak III cast the lone dissent. At least 10 residents spoke at the county meeting, pressing concerns about noise, light pollution, outdoor storage and how close the development would sit to nearby homes. Some asked for stronger buffering and screening protections, a reminder that store growth in fast-moving Florida markets often arrives with neighborhood pushback long before a first pallet lands on the sales floor.

The county file moved again in May, when a major site plan was submitted to the Marion County Development Review Committee. The sequence matters for Home Depot associates and local leaders alike: permit approval in November, site planning in May, land closing in June. That is the kind of timeline that usually gives an early read on future hiring demand, delivery traffic and the balance between do-it-yourself shoppers and pros who expect quick loads, outdoor material handling and reliable inventory flow.

The new store would become Home Depot’s second in Marion County, joining the existing location at 3300 SW 35th Terrace in Ocala. The closing came the same day a nearby Fifth Third Bank site sold for $2.775 million, underscoring how actively southwest Ocala is being remade around retail and service growth. With TownPlace Suites to the east and Cody’s Original Roadhouse to the south, the new box adds another anchor to a corridor that is drawing both customer traffic and the back-of-house labor needed to serve it.