Westlake Village-based Dole Food Company has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a move that would take the company public for the second time in its history.

Dole, a producer of fruits and vegetables, will initially offer up to $500 million in common stock. Its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange would be DOLE.

The company had more than $2 billion in debt at the end of the second quarter. Going public will help raise needed cash for chair David Murdock, who gained controlling interest in Dole in 1985. The Lake Sherwood billionaire is currently the company’s sole stockholder. The public would receive a portion of his shares as well as those that are newly issued.

This will be Dole’s second public offering. In 2003, Murdock took the company private in a $1.45-billion cash buyout. He also assumed $1 billion in debt.

The number of new shares to be offered and their price have not yet been determined, according to a statement issued by the company. Underwriters for the deal include Goldman, Sachs & Company; Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Deutsche Bank Securities; and Wells Fargo Securities.

Net revenue for the first half of 2009 was $3.3 billion, down from $3.7 billion during the same period in 2008.

An octogenarian, Murdock developed a passion for health and wellness after the death of his wife in 1985. In 2006, he opened the Four Seasons Resort and Spa adjacent to Dole’s Westlake Village headquarters. The 20-acre, high-end hotel and spa promotes nutrition and exercise through personalized health improvement and maintenance programs.

Dole’s roots go back to the 1850s when James Drummond Dole started a pineapple-growing operation in Hawaii. The company today markets not only fruits and vegetables but also fresh-cut flowers and packaged goods.

Murdock’s real estate development company, Castle & Cooke, owns the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

In the late 1980s, Murdock bought 1,840 acres of land next to Lake Sherwood and built a gated community that includes the 18-hole championship Sherwood Country Club golf course.