SANTA BARBARA, CA – Hertz Corporation, one of the world’s largest equipment rental businesses and the world’s largest airport general use car rental brand, recently leased retail space for a new location to serve Santa Barbara. The new site will be the freestanding 1,013 SF building at 16 S. La Cumbre Road, adjacent to the Five Points Shopping Center. Michael Martz of Hayes Commercial Group represented Hertz in the transaction.

Hertz, which currently has a location at the Santa Barbara Airport and an onsite location at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort, recently set its sights on a new Santa Barbara location. “Hertz wanted a presence in the upper State Street area, primarily to serve local residents who need a rental car for a trip out of town or because their car is in the shop,” Martz said.

Hertz selected Martz to locate sites and negotiate a lease. Martz, a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and a retail specialist for the Central Coast, is regularly called on by national and regional tenants to help secure Central Coast locations.

With Santa Barbara’s extremely low vacancy rate, quality retail locations are a rare commodity. “Retailers are often surprised at the difficulty of finding good locations in our market,” Martz said. Santa Barbara’s retail vacancy is 2.1 percent, dramatically lower than the national average of 10.4 percent.

“In most cities, if vacancy rates get this low developers can build new retail centers to satisfy the demand. However, Santa Barbara’s lack of excess land and relatively stringent approval process result in almost no new retail development,” Martz explained.

Hertz plans to open the new location at 16 S. La Cumbre Road this summer.