For the first time in their history, the members of the Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship have a home to call their own.

The church, which draws members from all over the Conejo Valley as well as from Moorpark, Simi Valley, Camarillo and the San Fernando Valley, has bought two buildings in a new business development on Old Conejo Road in Newbury Park.

"It's wonderful," said lay minister Susan Dixon of Thousand Oaks, during a social gathering between services at the new center on Sunday. "So many people, if they don't see a building, they think you don't exist."

"As we drove up there's the sign that says the Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and we never had that before," said Phoebe Rivera of Oak Park.

For the past 11 years, the fellowship, which was founded in 1962, has been meeting each Sunday in rented space at the Goebel Senior Center in Thousand Oaks. Before that, meetings had been held in a variety of rented locations.

"We started looking for a home six years ago, and after looking for a couple of years, we said we have to be creative or we're not going to find a spot," said Bill Robinson, a Westlake Village resident who serves as vice president of the church.

"So we looked at industrial places, open ground, commercial places, and we finally decided that if we're going to do it we're going to have to find a new development early in the game while we can still get modifications made for it to make it work for us," Robinson said.

The break church members were hoping for came when Robinson's wife, landscape architect Louise Robinson, was hired to consult on the new Bollinger Executive Office Park. Through her connection with the project, property developer Paul Bollinger agreed to customize the two buildings to better suit their needs.

One of the buildings has been turned into a sanctuary for worship, with a soaring ceiling, lots of natural light and enhanced acoustics.

"This is a much more worshipful environment and so it has a much more emotional feel, and so it's been quite a joy," said fellowship president Claudia Barton.

The two-story building next door to the sanctuary is home to religious education classrooms, administrative offices, a library and meeting rooms.

Many of the features of the new church buildings are environmentally friendly with a focus on conserving energy and water.

"We used as much daylight as we could and used minimal materials on the flooring. For example we didn't use carpeting; we used stained concrete," said member Paul Chavez. "Probably 70 percent of the items and furniture are recycled."

The project cost $4.4 million, officials say. More than half of the cost of the administrative building has been raised through donations and a matching grant from the national Unitarian Universalist Association, which has its headquarters in Boston.

An investor group was formed from a number of church members to buy the sanctuary building and lease it to the fellowship, leaving open the option that investors could sell the property and receive a return on their investment.

The fellowship's leadership hopes the new home will help it to reach out and have a larger presence in the Conejo Valley.

"We're kind of an unusual organization, so by having a larger presence in the Conejo Valley, we're hoping to attract people with like values or those wanting to develop values," said Barton.

"We have 200 members, about 75 people who come regularly but are not yet members, and about 90 kids, so we are hoping we will grow."