In the early 1960s, James Fenton, an advertising executive in San Jose purchased a 12 acre cauliflower field in Aptos adjacent to Highway 1. This field became Rancho Del Mar, the shopping center of Aptos.

Over the next nearly fifty years, the center has been expanded or renovated four times to its present size of over 11 acres containing over thirty stores and offices.

The shopping center of Aptos provides a wide array of products and services to the community including groceries, pharmacy, cleaners, banking, restaurants, hardware and theaters. Additionally center visitors can find a wide array of goods and services in over two dozen specialty retail shops. For decades, Aptos residents and visitors have been gathering in the food court or in the wi-fi friendly coffee house.

Rancho Del Mar is still owned and operated by the Fenton family which intends to continue to maintain it as the true community shopping destination. Plans are presently underway for another major renovation to include updated storefronts and facades, lighting, landscaping and signage. Rancho Del Mar, the shopping center of Aptos