KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Stowers Rents, the rental arm of the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Cat dealership, is opening a new rental facility on the grounds of its main dealership location in east Knoxville, Joel Harper, general manager of rental services told RER.

Stowers, which opened a brand new 42,000-square-foot rental facility in fast-growing west Knoxville in May, needed to keep a rental location in east Knoxville for the convenience of its customer base. With two interstates meeting in the middle of Knoxville, traffic from one end of the city to the other has become extremely congested, Harper noted.

The new Cat Rental Store opened Nov. 1. It's smaller than the west Knoxville facility, with one dedicated rental service bay and about $1.5 million in inventory. The company built a ring road around the dealership, with signs directing customers to the Cat Rental Store as they enter the property. The branch handles sales of compact construction equipment.

“We built this facility for the convenience of customers who work in the eastern end of Knoxville,” Harper told RER. “This way those customers won't have to fight traffic out to west Knoxville to look at compact construction equipment, see demos, take care of financing or look at rental products.”

Stowers Rents, No. 58 on the RER 100, also has branches in Crossville, Chattanooga and Tri-Cities, Tenn.