It's been a busy year of acquisitions for Bixby Land Co, capped off recently by its fifth in OC this year. The deal aims to take advantage of the tight South Orange County office market, SVP Aaron Hill tells us.

Bixby acquired the 71k SF Mission Heritage Center in Mission Viejo for more than $15M from New York Life Real Estate Investors. For an investor willing to spend on upgrades, the opportunity posed by the property is told by relative vacancy rates: the building is 59% occupied, while the surrounding submarket is at 92.5% occupancy.

There's a shortage of small to midsized spaces in the market (up to about 11k SF), which the property can accommodate, Aaron says. Bixby plans to invest $5M for common area improvements and the construction of move-in ready spec suites, with the goal of leasing up and stabilizing the property. Bixby repped itself in the transaction, while New York Life was repped by CBRE's Kevin Shannon, Paul Jones and Blake Bokosky.