A Louisiana-based national rental equipment company celebrated the grand opening last week of its first Washington store right here in Kent.

H&E Equipment Services opened earlier this year at 8810 S. 208th St., just east of 84th Avenue South. The company started in 1961 in Baton Rouge and has 66 stores nationwide and specializes in earth moving and construction equipment.

“Kent is the hub,” branch manager Zac Anderson said about the reason the company picked Kent for its first Washington location. “We can get throughout Washington with being close to I-90 and I-5. In Kent, we can serve the Seattle metro market.”

Anderson said a central location is important for drive time for delivery of equipment as well as service calls if equipment needs to be fixed.

The inventory of equipment includes aerial lifts, telescopic forklifts, earthmoving equipment, compaction and concrete equipment, generators and compressors. The equipment manufacturers include JLG, Genie, Skytrak, Gehl, Atlas Copco, National Crane, Takeuchi, Multiquip and Wacker.

H&E features new and used equipment sales; a large rental fleet of nearly new equipment (over 17,000 units companywide); fully-equipped in-house service bays and mobile service; factory-trained service professionals; a fully stocked parts warehouse (over $17 million inventory companywide); equipment financing and insurance; and operator and safety training.

Sixteen employees work at the Kent facility. The company employs 16,000 nationwide.

For more information call 253-872-8800 or go to http://www.he-equipment.com/.