NEWPORT BEACH, CA-The Bixby Land Co. has acquired three industrial buildings in Orange and San Diego counties for $31 million as the private REIT continues to expand its Southern California holdings. With the closings of these deals, which include two sale-leasebacks, Bixby has added $170 million in assets over the last six months.

The properties include one in Orange County and two in San Diego County, both markets that Bixby CEO Bill Halford views as strong with significant upside potential. Buying the buildings in Orange County and San Diego continues the strategy of "acquiring high quality assets in key markets" that the company outlined when it began its acquisition push, Halford notes.

The Orange County property that Bixby acquired is a 61,622-sf building at 26776 Simpatica Circle in Lake Forest. The deal is a sale-leaseback with the seller, a private investor, signing a 10-year lease for the facility.

The two San Diego County properties include a 106,139-sf building at 2840 Loker Ave. in Carlsbad and a 48,000-sf building at 15890 Bernardo Center Dr. in San Diego. The 106,139-sf building in Carlsbad is leased to Seltzer Chemicals and Dunn Edwards, while the 48,000-sf building is the other sale-leaseback.

In the Loker Avenue transaction in Carlsbad, the brokers were Rick Reeder and Dennis Visser of BRE/Grubb & Ellis. In the sale-leaseback at 26776 Simpatica Circle in Lake Forest, the broker was Michael Lawrence of Marcus & Millichap. The 48,000-sf sale-leaseback was brokered by Ty Moffitt and Dave Harper of Colliers International.