The Stuart Rental Co. embraces creative energy of clients

The Stuart Rental Co. serves San Francisco Bay Area clients.

As the oldest party rental and event production company in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Stuart Rental Co. in Milpitas, Calif., has provided event rental equipment and award-winning event services for decades of Northern California galas and celebrations. Formed in 1849 to provide temporary canvas shelter for prospectors during the Gold Rush, the company now produces all types of events including outdoor concerts, festivals, charity galas, weddings, corporate marketing and employee events, university and scholastic events and backyard/in-home parties.

The company’s long history in the region has brought it opportunities to produce creative, high quality events, and to contribute to the well being of the community. Of historic interest are the tents the company donated for displaced residents of the 1906 earthquake, and netting the company manufactured that saved 19 lives during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

In January 2011, The Stuart Rental Co. gained access to the inventory of Richmond, Calif.-based Top Productions—a provider of clearspan structures, large-scale tenting installations and production infrastructure services. The companies, which operate under the name The Stuart Rental Co., represent a pooling of decades of production expertise, large-scale clearspan structure and tenting inventories, and party rental products. “We have long recognized that designers and event producers have wanted alternatives to the current marketplace,” says Stuart CEO Mike Berman. “Having worked with Top Productions over the past several years, Top Productions’ president Peter Daly and I knew that our combined offerings would provide the marketplace with such a solution.”

Although the company enjoys a bursting schedule and acclaimed success, there are increasing challenges, Berman says. “As is the case everywhere, lead times for events have diminished significantly due to budget constraints,” he says. “And municipalities are beginning to require site-specific engineering and charge larger fees, which push some events beyond the client’s budget.”

Challenges notwithstanding, there’s not another region in which Berman would prefer the company to be located. “The temperate climate of the Bay Area allows for great flexibility in regards to tenting,” Berman says. “Event planners and designers have a wide latitude in regards to what they can deliver for their end users, and the creativity for which the Bay Area is known also translates into some imaginative, over-the-top events. We consider it a privilege to work with some of the most creative people in the world in one of the most beautiful places in the world.”