Enterprise is back in Ceres and three Chambers of Commerce were around last week to celebrate in the good news.

The car rental business had been in Ceres once before but the economic recession forced the office at 2700 Mitchell Road to close about eight years ago. It reopened in September, causing the Ceres and Modesto as well as Central Valley Hispanic chambers to partake in a joint ribbon cutting event at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

"For about the past three years we've been looking to come back in and finally the time is right," said Matthew J. Amaral, the branch rental manager.

He said both Modesto and Turlock Enterprise offices were seeing increased customers from Ceres "and we wanted to get back into Ceres."

The company searched for a location - needing a building where cars could be washed - and ended up coming back to the same industrial building on Mitchell Road located east of the Bank of America.

Most of the clientele renting cars are locals needing replacement vehicles while their cars are being worked on for service or after accidents, or those who lost cars in a crash.

"We have great relationships with the dealers," Amaral said.

Some go to Enterprise for a car to prevent their personal autos from piling on the mileage for a road trip.

"It's really nice to be in the Ceres community. It's great people. I'm just really proud to come back and be reopening the store and have conversations with folks who remember when it used to be Enterprise."

The office is currently open weekdays 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Area Manager Andrea Winters said the plan is to open the office Saturday mornings from 9 p.m. to 12 noon.

Ironically Enterprise sees Saturdays as the slowest activity period for other stores, she said.

The phone number is (209) 222-5683.