Caterpillar dealer to open 3rd RGV location in Edinburg [The Monitor, McAllen, Texas]

Sept. 13--The Rio Grande Valley's authorized Caterpillar dealer will build a state-of-the-art showroom along U.S. 281 to increase its visibility and expand services for customers in South Texas.

HOLT CAT's plan to construct the sales and service facility in Edinburg reinforces its commitment to the Valley, said Joe Carreon, the company's marketing director. HOLT CAT's location in Weslaco, the site of one of the original stores for the company founded in 1933, will remain open to customers.

"We've got a long presence and big commitment to the Valley," Carreon said. "This is an expansion kind of following where the growth is going in the Valley."

Located just north of Farm-to-Market Road 2812 along U.S. 281's southbound lanes, HOLT CAT's Edinburg site would be its largest in South Texas. With about 50,000 square feet of new construction and renovated space, the Edinburg store will feature a showroom, parts department, repair shop and company offices.

HOLT CAT, the authorized dealer of Caterpillar heavy equipment and engines throughout most of Texas, will keep its two other Valley locations open. Its Weslaco store, 725 E. Business 83, sells and services Caterpillar's heavy equipment while an existing Edinburg store at 1320 S. 25th Ave. is the home of its truck and RV service center.

But company officials said the new location will provide them greater visibility and more space than available at its other locations.

In addition to providing more room for its service and parts department, the Edinburg location will allow it to showcase more Caterpillar equipment, said Kathy Bower, the regional sales manager for the Valley and Laredo. Store managers can barely fit some of the heavy-duty machinery on the footprint of the Weslaco store.

"We'll be able to keep more business in the Valley that we send to San Antonio because we don't have the capability," she said.

Founded in 1933 as the Caterpillar dealership for South Texas, HOLT CAT's original locations were in the Valley, Corpus Christi, Victoria and San Antonio. While the company originally serviced agricultural customers in the Valley, it now sells equipment for construction, earth moving, mining, industrial and petroleum industries.

HOLT CAT's core customer base in the Valley today is cities and counties that use their equipment for building roads, digging and clearing ditches and operating landfills. The company also sells equipment for highway and general contractors, industrial clients and agribusiness.

Slated to open in late 2013, the Edinburg location will be built on an old oil field site located on about 35 acres near Ric Mar Street, said Tony Shedrock, HOLT CAT's vice president for general services. U.S. 281's future development as Interstate 69 and the planned Hidalgo County loop made it a good fit.

"It just appears that is the way things are moving in the Valley," Shedrock said. "We look at these stores for 30 to 40 years or longer, so they're not short-term investments.

"We try to find a place that's going to be good for our business for a long time."

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at jjanes@themonitor.com and (956) 683-4424.

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