Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. celebrated the grand opening of its La Feria, Texas general rental facility on Feb. 29. The event, which drew more than 400 people, showcased the facility’s showroom and newly expanded product line, which includes small tools, equipment and contractors’ supplies.

At the grand opening vendor demonstrations and literature were available, a free lunch was catered and partly sponsored by Case Construction, and giveaways were provided on-site. HERC management participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and local radio station broadcasted live from the event.

The new 8,000-square-foot facility sits on a 3-acre lot in the middle of the Rio Grande Valley. It offers a broad range of new products, from small rotary hammers to large excavators with breakers. In addition to the newly expanded product line, HERC La Feria still offers a wide assortment of construction and industrial equipment from manufacturers such as Case, Genie, JLG, John Deere, Wacker and Stihl.

The grand opening of HERC La Feria was part of the company’s general rental program expansion that HERC began in 2003 in support of its commitment to increase services and products for small, medium and large contractors as well as homeowners. The company added 24 general rental locations in 2006 as part of its planned expansion in that line of equipment rental and currently has approximately 290 general rental locations throughout the United States and Canada.

In other HERC news, Rock Island, Ill., last week approved a proposal from HERC to operate a rental and sales business in the city. HERC already has five locations in Illinois. The company plans to open a branch in the downtown area of the city within three months, according to online news reports.

The permit application ran into an obstacle when city council members said boomlifts must be lowered to the ground. Hertz managers told the council that lowering the booms takes up too much space on the yard and also limits the company’s marketing ability since boomlifts attract attention and can be seem from a considerable distance. However, a public notice brought no opposition to the proposal and the city council passed it unanimously.

A wholly owned subsidiary of The Hertz Corp., Park Ridge, N.J.-based HERC is No. 4 on the RER 100.