HOUSTON — James Horsley, who sold his Houston-based Lone Star Rentals to National Equipment Services in 1997, recently opened Champion Rentals, a new rental company, in the original location where he and a partner founded Lone Star. Horsley retained ownership of the property of his five rental centers when he sold to NES.

When NES didn't renew the lease, Horsley began working on fixing up the property earlier this year. “This location has been a rental center since 1946,” Horsley told RER. “Every day when I was there fixing up the property, 10 or 12 people came by wanting to know when they could rent equipment. I started thinking of getting back into business again.”

Horsley, who worked for NES after the sale before taking two years off, found that some of his former Lone Star Rentals employees were available and he put together a team of people, all of whom worked for him in the past. Steve Whatley is the branch manager.