Camarillo-based real estate development and brokerage firm Ventura Investment Co. celebrates its 50th anniversary this month.

“In the past 50 years, we’ve shifted focus from new development to purchasing and renovating,” said Barton Stern, president of Ventura Investment Co. “However, we do continue to focus on multi-family and office properties.”

Stern’s father, Robert, founded the firm in 1958, three years after moving to Camarillo. Ventura Investment Co. now employs almost 100 people in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Robert Stern guided the company through its development of several Ventura County communities, including Rancho Lomita Estates in Camarillo, portions of the Santa Rosa Valley and the neighborhood at Beverly Drive in Camarillo. He also built the Park Glenn Apartments, Villa Campana Apartments and Pickwick Park Apartments in Camarillo before passing away in 1997.

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