Housing near Kroger Distribution Center

04The drive to the Groveland plant from each home

Groveland sits well out into Lake County, west of the city, and the drive from our homes reflects that distance. Across the thirteen homes, the trip runs from 37 minutes at the short end to 50 at the long end, every figure a typical road-routing time without traffic. Three homes tie for that short end at about 37 minutes: Meet. Play. Stay. in Malibu Groves, and Entertainment Home and Cozy Home, both in Pine Hills. That three-way tie is the headline number for this page: three different houses, in two different neighborhoods, landing on the same minute figure.

Behind those three, The Clue House in Pine Hills follows at about 38 minutes. A cluster of three homes sits at about 39: Amelia’s Arena Retreat downtown in Parramore, City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes in Washington Shores, and Wekiwa Home in Hiawassee. Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando and Downtown & Stadium Cozy Retreat run about 40 minutes, Piedmont about 42, and Fruit Tree Home about 43. WinterPark Home in Lockhart, the farthest of the thirteen, is about 50.

For the Malibu Groves and Pine Hills homes, the first leg runs on SR-408, the East-West Expressway both neighborhoods already use to reach downtown and Universal; from there the route continues west, out of Orange County and into Lake County, for the rest of the trip. SR-408 is a toll road, collected by transponder or by plate, so a SunPass or E-PASS is worth setting up if the assignment runs more than a week or two. Orlando's morning and evening rush hours add time to every one of these routes, more on the longer ones than the closest three, so a shift that starts or ends inside those windows is worth timing against the actual traffic at that hour; the minute figures on this page assume a clear road.

05Where the homes sit around the plant

The map places each home in its true direction from the plant, with each home's distance from the centre scaled to its drive time in minutes. Two clusters carry five homes each. The West Orlando cluster is Meet. Play. Stay. in Malibu Groves, the Sunset Lake, Dollins and Piedmont houses in Washington Shores, and Wekiwa Home in Hiawassee; among these five the drive runs from 37 minutes at Meet. Play. Stay. to 42 at Piedmont. The Northwest Orlando cluster is the Entertainment, Cozy, Head Avenue and Londonderry houses in Pine Hills, plus WinterPark Home in Lockhart; this cluster spans a wider range, 37 minutes to 50, because Lockhart sits north of Orlando along US-441 toward Altamonte Springs, a different direction from Groveland than the Pine Hills homes sit in. Amelia’s Arena Retreat, downtown in Parramore, and Fruit Tree Home, just south of downtown in Holden Heights, each stand alone in their own direction, at 39 and 43 minutes.

Two homes landing on a similar minute figure can still sit in different directions from the plant, so it helps to read the map next to each neighborhood's own page. Malibu Groves and Pine Hills cover the two closest neighborhoods, and Lockhart covers WinterPark Home at the far end. Picking a home for a Groveland assignment usually comes down to trading a few minutes of drive time for a different kind of street: Malibu Groves and Pine Hills are quieter and closer to the route west, while Lockhart and the downtown-edge homes sit nearer the rest of the metro for the days you are not driving out to the plant. A one-vehicle household can cross clusters without losing much time on errands; a two-vehicle household splitting a plant shift against errands elsewhere in the metro has more reason to weigh the map closely before choosing.

06What an assignment near the plant looks like week to week

The four kinds of guest this page is for move at different paces, but the housing need is close to the same. Automation and engineering staff on a facility ramp are usually working against a startup schedule that shifts as equipment comes online, which makes a flexible, month-to-month agreement more useful than a fixed reservation. Launch and operations teams flown in from another Kroger site typically work a defined stretch measured in weeks, with the whole team billing to one project. Installation and commissioning contractors keep a similar rhythm: arriving as equipment goes in, leaving once it runs, and sometimes coming back for a second phase later. Managers relocating into a fulfillment-center role are a different case again, fewer people on a longer horizon, often with a house search back home still open.

A full house sets the daily rhythm for all four kinds of guest. Work clothes go straight into the house's own washer and dryer, which matters over a run of long shifts. A stocked kitchen means dinner after the drive back from Groveland gets cooked at home, no stop needed on the way. When a crew is billing to one project, a single monthly rate for the whole house is one line on an expense report, covering the whole stay under one charge. Our crew housing and corporate and business housing pages cover the paperwork for each of those arrangements, and our relocation and long-stay page covers what a slower, house-hunting move looks like for a manager relocating in.

07The homes closest to the plant

West Orlando

Malibu Groves

Meet. Play. Stay.

3 bd 2 ba Sleeps 9

9 min downtown · 10 min ORMC · 12 min Universal

Remote Workers & Digital NomadsGroups & Reunions

Northwest Orlando

Pine Hills

Entertainment Home

3 bd 2 ba Sleeps 11

11 min downtown · 12 min ORMC · 14 min Universal

Groups & ReunionsFamily Vacations & Theme Parks

Northwest Orlando

Pine Hills

Cozy Home

3 bd 1 ba Sleeps 8

11 min downtown · 12 min ORMC · 14 min Universal

Family Vacations & Theme ParksInsurance & Displacement

Meet. Play. Stay.

Meet. Play. Stay., in Malibu Groves, is the newest-built home in the portfolio and one of three tied for the shortest drive to the plant, at about 37 minutes. It is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that sleeps up to nine, with an attached garage, a fenced backyard, and a separate game room holding a pool table, a dart board and a second table. Two of the bedrooms have a desk and an office chair, which works for anyone on the assignment who needs a proper laptop setup during the stay. It is tagged on our site for corporate and business stays, and it carries a perfect run of Airbnb reviews, 5.0 across 34 stays. The landscaping is young, since the house itself is new: a plain grass yard with no plantings yet, and furnishings inside that are kept simple and functional.

Entertainment Home and Cozy Home

Both sit in Pine Hills and tie Meet. Play. Stay. at about 37 minutes to the plant, and both are tagged on our site for contractor-crew stays. Entertainment Home sleeps up to eleven across three bedrooms plus a small bonus room that adds sleeping space, with an attached one-car garage, a foosball table and table tennis, and a living room built around a white sectional and a fireplace TV wall. It carries 88 Airbnb reviews at a 4.76 rating, more than either of the other two closest homes. It is an older single-story block house on a working-class street, and the front lawn runs patchy in spots.

Cozy Home sleeps up to eight across three bedrooms and is the only one of the three with a full-size washer and dryer. It has one bathroom for the whole house, comfortable for one or two people and worth planning around for a bigger group, plus a breakfast bar and a dining table for four. It carries 19 Airbnb reviews at a 4.3 rating. The house is an older single story, the rooms are compact, and the listing photo of the outside was taken at dusk; the house itself is navy blue with white trim. None of the three homes publishes a street address on the site; each is listed by neighborhood and zip, with the exact address shared once a stay is booked.

08Billing a crew, a vendor or a relocating employee

Every stay near the plant starts with a written agreement naming the home, the dates, the rate and the deposit, plus itemized monthly receipts for whoever reconciles the trip against a project or per-diem budget. If Kroger itself, an installation vendor or a relocation coordinator is the party paying, we write the agreement and the monthly invoice directly to that company, so the paperwork routes to the right desk from the start.

• Established companies, agencies and insurers can arrange Net-30 terms on a signed agreement or a purchase order, with the first month paid up front.
• A W-9 and a certificate of insurance are available on request; Libema carries a commercial landlord liability policy.
• The rate and any deposit are confirmed in writing when you inquire. The site does not publish rates.
• Extensions run month by month at the same terms, so a commissioning phase that runs long does not mean renegotiating from scratch.

A manager relocating on their own and paying the bill personally gets the same written agreement, just without a purchase order attached: a rate and a deposit in writing, confirmed before the first night. Whichever party is named, every receipt itemizes the month by the house, a single lodging line that is usually simpler for an expense system to process than a nightly hotel rate with incidentals layered on top. Our coordinator's checklist for booking employee housing walks through what to have ready before you call.

09What's in the house

Every home is furnished and ready from the first night of the agreement, and the exact inclusions are confirmed in writing before you book.

Exact inclusions vary a little by home and are confirmed in writing when you book.

None of the three homes closest to the plant has a pool; none of the thirteen does, since they are ordinary residential houses. Bedroom and bathroom counts match each home's own listing, and a sofa is never counted as a bed, which matters when you are sizing a crew against Cozy Home's capacity of eight or Entertainment Home's eleven. Guests let themselves in with keyless entry or a lockbox, and arrival notes with the code or the key location arrive a few days before check-in. Several homes in the portfolio accept pets, and the policy and any deposit are confirmed in writing before you commit, worth asking about if someone on a long rotation is bringing one along.

10Around the homes near the plant

None of these three homes is walkable to much, and daily errands during a stay here mean a short drive, typical for this part of Orlando. From Meet. Play. Stay. in Malibu Groves, the closest grocery run is the Publix at Metro West Village on South Hiawassee Road, and the MetroWest restaurant corridor on the same road covers everyday meals: Tacos Don Andres for birria, Habibi Lebanese Grill, a sushi spot, and Teak Neighborhood Grill for burgers and a weekend brunch.

Inside of a Publix store in MetroWest, Orlando, Florida · Nielsoncaetanosalmeron · CC BY 4.0 · resized from 6000x4000

From Entertainment Home and Cozy Home in Pine Hills, the choice is wider: Presidente Supermarket on North Pine Hills Road for Latin groceries, and Caribbean Supercenter and Enson Market, an Asian supermarket, both on West Colonial Drive, plus a Walmart Supercenter on West Princeton Street for a full weekly shop. For food, Island Jam Caribbean Cuisine on North Pine Hills Road serves griot and fried plantains, and Golden Krust at West Colonial and North Kirkman is the reliable stop for a Jamaican beef patty or jerk chicken. Barnett Park, 159 acres on West Colonial Drive, has a splash pad, walking trails, disc golf and a recreation center, and the nearby Silver Star Recreation Center adds a workout room and drop-in programs. A 24-hour Planet Fitness sits on Silver Star Road toward Ocoee, and the LA Fitness and EOS chains line West Colonial Drive, both a short drive from either Pine Hills home.

Pharmacies are easy to reach from all three homes: the Walmart on Princeton Street plus CVS and Walgreens along Silver Star Road and Pine Hills Road cover the two Pine Hills homes, and Orange Blossom Trail and West Colonial Drive, a short drive from Meet. Play. Stay., carry the same chains. LYNX buses run the main roads near the Pine Hills homes, but there is no SunRail stop out that way, so plan on having a car for the stretch of the stay, on top of the drive out to Groveland itself.

11What guests said

These are real reviews from Meet. Play. Stay.'s own Airbnb listing, quoted exactly as written, with the reviewer's name and the month of the stay. Every home in the portfolio carries its own set of reviews on its page, and the complete collection is on our reviews page.