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Chandler Fashion Center is in the midst of a mini-makeover as dozens of retailers are remodeling, moving to larger spaces or making their first appearance at the mall.
The big changes are the result of the 1.2 million square foot center reaching its 10th anniversary in October 2011, which involved leases expiring on about 450,000 square feet.
The mall was able to keep a large number of stores and lure some higher-end retailers despite the struggles many other centers have gone through, said Christina Lanoue, senior property manager.
The community’s large high-tech industry and big employers like Intel helped the area through tough times, she said.
“I don’t think we suffered as much as the other centers have,” Lanoue said. “There’s a very loyal customer to this center.”
The wave of changes began last year and should be complete by October, in time for the busy Christmas shopping season.
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Gov. Jan Brewer signed a package of tax cuts into law on Friday that will reduce state revenues by more than $100 million by 2019.
Brewer said the provisions, taken together, should help stimulate the state economy. And that, the governor said, will create more jobs which, in turn, should mean more tax dollars.
The cuts approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature, will not kick in before 2014, a concession to Brewer’s insistence that lawmakers not cut business taxes while individual Arizonans are paying higher sales taxes. That temporary one-cent sales tax surcharge, approved by voters in 2010, self-destructs slightly more than a year from now.
They also come on top of a $538 million package of business tax reductions approved last session. Those cuts, also being phased in over several years, will cut corporate income taxes by nearly 30 percent and business property taxes by 10 percent.
In a speech to the Arizona Manufacturers Council where she signed this year’s measure, Brewer defended the changes in tax policy.
“We all know that high corporate taxes are job killers,” the governor said. “They discourage expansion.”
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Results, results, results.
Amidst a world of less expensive, all-in-one big-box gyms, and coming out of a recession that knocked many small businesses out for the count, the key to success for small gyms and personal training facilities in the East Valley, their owners say, is just that — the personalized results they can offer their clients.
John Allen, owner of John Allen’s Arizona Body Sculpting and Personal Training, and Tammi Jacobs, owner of Results Health and Fitness, are examples of small gym owners succeeding in a tough economy.
Allen has been doing business in the Valley for almost 30 years and points out the reason his company has been so successful: “We have that personal touch with the client that the big gyms don’t.”
Jacobs, also a longtime personal trainer, says the attention and structured workouts really are effective in helping members achieve tailored results. For Jacobs, dedication to one-on-one time spent with a client is paying off in a big way.
“Our general memberships have doubled in the last four months and we are located across the street from a 24 Hour Fitness and two miles away from a Mountainside Fitness,” Jacobs said.