Slim and Tone fitness chain hoping to bulk up Central Texas locations Horsham, Pa.-based Slim and Tone, a women's fitness chain that now has two Central Texas locations, plans to open as many as eight more clubs in the area. The clubs offer 30-minute, circuit-style workouts. Cathy Garza, co-owner of the 2,500-square-foot Slim and Tone franchise in Round Rock, says she wants to open another four clubs in Central Texas, the first of them within the next two years. Most of those clubs likely will open in suburban locations, she says. Hot properties: high-tech condos ----By Marilyn Bowden • Bankrate.com To hold their value in the red-hot U.S. residential market, condominium units need to offer more than zero-entry swimming pools and personal Jacuzzis. High-tech amenities that will support emerging technologies in the coming years have to be part of the package. A new wave of voice, video and data systems with names such as VOIP, WiFi and IPTV are creating a kind of alphabet soup that has to be carefully digested before a consumer can properly assess a condo unit's likely market value in the years ahead. In a climate where several kinds of high-tech systems are vying for the same consumer base, it's the buyer who must exercise caution to avoid acquiring an abode that simply won't make the cut within a few years. If a developer doesn't install some of these amenities during construction, "it can be cost-prohibitive or even technically impossible to do it later," says Carl Lender, vice president of sales and marketing for CSI Consulting, a South Florida-based firm that advises builders on emerging technologies. That, in turn, can sharply reduce a unit's resale value.
Slim and Tone fitness chain hoping to bulk up Central Texas locations
Horsham, Pa.-based Slim and Tone, a women's fitness chain that now has two Central Texas locations, plans to open as many as eight more clubs in the area. The clubs offer 30-minute, circuit-style workouts. Cathy Garza, co-owner of the 2,500-square-foot Slim and Tone franchise in Round Rock, says she wants to open another four clubs in Central Texas, the first of them within the next two years. Most of those clubs likely will open in suburban locations, she says.
Hot properties: high-tech condos ----By Marilyn Bowden • Bankrate.com
To hold their value in the red-hot U.S. residential market, condominium units need to offer more than zero-entry swimming pools and personal Jacuzzis. High-tech amenities that will support emerging technologies in the coming years have to be part of the package. A new wave of voice, video and data systems with names such as VOIP, WiFi and IPTV are creating a kind of alphabet soup that has to be carefully digested before a consumer can properly assess a condo unit's likely market value in the years ahead. In a climate where several kinds of high-tech systems are vying for the same consumer base, it's the buyer who must exercise caution to avoid acquiring an abode that simply won't make the cut within a few years. If a developer doesn't install some of these amenities during construction, "it can be cost-prohibitive or even technically impossible to do it later," says Carl Lender, vice president of sales and marketing for CSI Consulting, a South Florida-based firm that advises builders on emerging technologies. That, in turn, can sharply reduce a unit's resale value.
