12 minute read
BUSINESS
Chandler dentists are robotic world-beaters
BY KEVIN PIREHOUR Arizonan Contributor
Robots might not be taking over the world, but they’re proving to be useful assistants in the dental field.
With the use of the Yomi dental system, the first FDA cleared robot-assisted dental surgery system, Dr. LisaMarie Sarhangian and Dr. Leslie Fish combined have completed over 750 robotic dental implants in their Chandler office. There are only about 50 Yomi dental systems installed in dental clinics throughout the world and their office is the only clinic in Arizona to use the system. To date, the two have completed more dental implants with the robotic assisChandler dental surgeons Dr. Leslie Fish and LisaMarie Sarhangian have completed more robotic implant surgeries than any in the world. (Kevin Pirehour/Contributor) tant than any other dental surgeons in the world.
“We didn’t go into it looking to be a leader, we went into it just looking to give our patients access to the best technology that we could,” Sarhangian said.
“And I think keeping our eyes on doing that for every patient that’s before us, has led us to do the numbers that we’ve done.” Yomi, developed by Neocis, is a computerized dental navigational system that offers surgeons precise physical guidance based on a pre-planned drilling route based on the patient’s CAT scans. The robotic arm limits the surgeon’s free-hand mobility while directing a sur-
seeROBOT page 27
Chandler strip mall turning into food mecca
ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF
Amajor Asian supermarket chain based in California with 51 locations in eight other states has picked a renovated Chandler strip mall for its entry into Arizona. 99 Ranch is anchoring the former Anderson Fiesta Shopping Center at 1760 W. Chandler Blvd., which was purchased by NewQuest Properties in October 2019 with an eye toward converting it into a foreign food mecca. 99 Ranch Market, also known as Tawa Supermarket, was established in 1984 by Roger Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant who felt there was a cultural gap in the typical American supermarket. “Our company slogan, ‘For 100, we try harder’ demonstrates our commitment to always provide the best products and services to the communities we serve,” it states on its website. “Ranch Market represents freshness and symbolizes our the 117,565-square-foot plaza and has pre-leased 87 percent of Class A retail – a 52 percent gain since it bought the mall.
“There are a lot of West Coast restaurateurs and retailers looking to expand to Arizona. Until now, they hadn’t found the right opportunity or product,” said Naoyuki Kondo, leasing specialist in NewQuest’s Asia-Pacific Retail Group.
NewQuest said it has invested about $10 million into the shopping center’s makeover, including the addition of welldesigned outdoor gathering spaces for the post-COVID era, new facades, lighting and signage. 99 Ranch will open in late May, backfilling a 44,442-sf former Basha’s store. Kura Revolving Sushi Bar and Uncle Lee’s Kitchen have leased 3,311 square feet and 1,466 square feet, respectively. Meet Fresh has roped off 2,400 square feet. All three will open later this year.
99 Ranch, an Asian supermarket will anchor the remodeled strip mall at 1760 W. Chandler Blvd., which owner NewQuest Properties is making a food lover's mecca.
(Courtesy of NewQuest Properties)
David Uhles of Western Retail Advisors represented Kura’s while the other two leases resulted from direct negotiations with NewQuest’s specialized leasing group. Chandler Ranch also will be home to the second Ramen Hood in the state, which will occupy another 2,791 square feet. “The redesigned Chandler Ranch is emerging as an epicurean collection of Asian, Mexican, Mediterranean and American cuisines,” a spokeswoman said, noting some restaurants were longtime tenants when NewQuest acquired the 14.5-acre property. “We envision Chandler Ranch will be a culinary destination that people will gravitate towards to experience a fun food adventure,” said Heather Nguyen, development partner of NewQuest Properties and leader of the Asia-Pacific Retail Group. NewQuest is modeling Chandler Ranch after three Asian-focused retail projects in its portfolio – Carrollton Town Center and Frisco Ranch in North Texas and Katy Grand in west Houston. “Market studies show Chandler, often deemed the Silicon Valley of Arizona, was a strong candidate for the firm’s niche concept because it boasts the highest Asian growth in the state,” a spokeswoman said. “We’ve had to educate potential tenants about the strong Asian growth. They didn’t always consider Arizona to be their next market,” Kondo added. “Chandler Ranch is changing their minds.” Key to success of the NewQuest concept is the concentration of established international restaurants and retail brands and rising stars from Pan-Asia and California that Nguyen’s team has been courting for several years. Categories include authentic cuisines, high-end bakeries, dessert shops and specialty stores.
“As with what we did in Texas, we are curating a tenant mix to create a diverse dining destination by recruiting certain brands for Chandler Ranch,” Nguyen said. “We hope to offer a destination where there is something that will appeal to everyone.”
NewQuest Properties was founded in 2001. The privately owned, full-service commercial real estate firm specializes in development, land brokerage, leasing, tenant representation, investment sales and property management services. Headquartered in Houston, NewQuest owns a portfolio of more than 60 retail and mixed-use projects valued at $2.2 billion and provides leasing services for more than 12 million square feet of commercial space throughout the U.S.
Keto bakery finds a real home in Chandler
ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF
Leah Huarte and her classically trained French chef husband Inaki finally have their own kitchen. The owners of Keto Kitchen Confections just had their grand opening of their store at 961 W. Ray Road in Chandler and they couldn’t be happier. That’s because since they opened in 2019, the Huartes have been baking out of a commercial kitchen and were having customers pick up their orders there. “I cringe when I think about it now,” Leah said. “If you’ve ever been in a commercial kitchen, you know they are not really what you want a customer to experience.” Besides, with a ketogenic menu that includes bagels, zucchini ravioli, giant cheese danishes, lemon pound cakes, cupcakes, caramel-chocolate pecan turtles, tiramisu, crème brulée and raspberry linzer bars and a lot more, they need some room to move. Thanks to Realtor Michael Pollack, they now have their store and their kitchen under one roof. “We are super excited to finally have our own kitchen,” Leah said. Good thing, too, because Keto Kitchen Confections has been a pandemic anomaly. Business soared during lockdown and is continuing to grow at breakneck speed, Leah said. “We actually saw our business grow – mostly because our business model is a little different,” she explained. “We’ve always operated primarily on pre-orders placed on our website and picked up at our shop. While we always have some items available for purchase during our pickup windows, we mostly bake to order. “This keeps our waste low which is critical with our pricier ingredients,” she added. Leah also noted that a lot of their success has to do with her husband.
“No one is really doing what we’re do-
Leah Huarte and her classically trained French chef husband Inaki are happy to be in a brick-and-mortar store with their own kitchen. (Facebook)
ing or at least at the level we are doing it,” she said. “Sure, there are a couple places that sell keto items at farmer’s markets or sugar eater bakeries that attempt to make keto items, but my husband is a classically trained French chef.” Leah has been keto for seven years and has lost 100 pounds – and keeping it off. “So we have both the skill and the experience at making sugar-free taste good,” she said. “We also have an amazing cake decorator that has allowed us to elevate our offerings even more. We have so many customers that are not necessarily keto, but are trying to keep their sugar consumption low for health reasons.” The ketogenic diet, commonly shortened to “keto,” is a low-carb, high-fat diet – putting one’s body in a state of ketosis, when the body can efficiently burn fat for energy instead of stored carbs.
While there are several styles of the diet – including standard, cyclical, targeted and high protein – they all share the same goal: to provide immediate weight loss, offer extended solution to burn fat efficiently and lower risk factors for diseases such as diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s. Though highly effective, the diet can be difficult to stick to if done improperly. A majority of beginners fall victim to “Keto Flu” while their body is adapting to the new source of energy. “Most people give up on the diet at that point. But the thing is they just don’t know how to get their body the energy it needs to sustain itself properly,” said Leah. “And that’s sort of where we step in and take the reins for you.”
“We’ve absolutely loved what we’ve heard from customers. We give you all the nutritional information and macros so if you’re counting that you can stay on track,” said Leah.
Information: Keto Kitchen Confections is on Facebook, or go to chandlerketobakery.com or call 480-630-4651.
geon’s drill location and depth to plant the metal implant post into a patient’s jawbone. That nearly eliminates the possibility of drill errors. Atop the implant sits a connector, known as an abutment, connected to the replacement tooth, which makes up the entirety of what is generally called a dental implant.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and can I do it on my own, sure. But I’m human,” Fish said. “Between my surgical skills and the robotic assistance, we’re more accurate. It’s impossible for a human to be a drill press.” Dental implants have a high success rate – only about 5 to 10-percent of dental implants fail, an outcome likely the result if the implant does not bond with the jawbone or factors such as microbial infections, according to a Clinical Implant Dentistry and Related Research study.
“There’s some amount of error anytime a human’s drilling,” Sarahagian said. “But if we’ve already pre-planned the implant to a certain location to avoid those anatomical structures and it’s locking us into that replant position and greatly helps us avoid those anatomical structures.” Robotics, such as da Vinci for laparoscopic surgery in the abdomen or pelvis, are becoming increasingly more common in surgical practices, and Fish said Yomi is the first step for dentistry. “Dentistry works in fractions of a millimeter,” Fish said. “For a human being repeatedly to be able to keep that precision is nearly impossible. So I do think whether
– Dr. Leslie Fish
The Yomi dental system helps Dr. Leslie Fish and LisaMarie Sarhangian reduce the chance for human error in implant surgeries. (Kevin Pirehour/Contributor)
it will be a decade from now, I think dentistry will be robotics.”
Information: fishandsarhangian.com.
Knowing Social Security rules is important start
BY HAROLD WONG
Contributor
Many decades ago, future retirement income was based on “the 3-legged stool:” Social Security, pensions and whatever you saved. In 2021, virtually no one in the private sector has an old-fashioned pension that pays you a guaranteed lifetime income. Today, only government employees (with rare exceptions) get a pension today. In 2020, the average annual Social Security (SS) benefit was $18,024 for an individual and $30,372 for a married couple. About 40.2 percent of Americans age 60 and up rely solely on Social Security for retirement income. According to Secure Retirement Institute research, SS makes up 37 percent of retirees’ total income. SS retirement income is based on only two factors: the highest 35 years of wages (or net profits from one’s own business) that you paid into SS, inflation adjusted; and when you take your SS. The easiest way to increase your SS income is to wait until age 70, when you get the maximum possible. However, Motley Fool finds that about 60 percent of retired workers take their SS prior to reaching age 65 and only about 10 percent begin taking SS between the ages of 67-70. Only 3 percent wait until age 70 and many take it at age 62, the earliest one is eligible.
Taking SS at age 70 instead of 62 could be a $1 million decision:
From 2017-2019, I gave two seminars each year for federal employees on “How to Understand Your Federal Retirement Benefits.” I did a composite of three single women: a nurse, nurse practitioner, and pharmacist. If they took SS at age 62, it would be $22,344 per year versus $43,680 at age 70. The difference is $21,336. For most of the last 12 years, one could only earn about 2 percent in a 10year US Treasury bond. One would need to save $1,066,800 times 2 percent to equal $21,336 of annual income.
What’s easier: waiting eight years to take SS or saving an extra $1,066,800 from age 62 to 70?
In retirement, folks live on monthly cash flow, which is usually more important than the total one’s saved. Example: if you deposit $3 million in a bank that pays 0.1 percent interest, one would only have $3,000 of annual interest income.
Case study of single female federal employee, who will turn age 66 in a month:
She earned $60,000 annually and had worked for the federal government for 36 years. She had talked to the local SS Administration office, who stressed that she should take SS when she turned 66. She would get about $24,000 annually. I advised her to wait until age 70 and she would get 32 percent more, or $31,680. This is $7,680 more annually.
If she retired from federal employment at 66, the Federal Employee Retirement System annuity would give her 36 years (1.1 percent of every year of service) times $60,000 salary = $23,760. Her total annual retirement income would be $23,760 federal retirement + $24,000 SS = $47,760. However, she thinks she has a good chance of getting a big promotion to $100,000 per year. If she works four more years, now her FERS benefit is 40 years (1.1 percent) times $100,000 = $44,000. Her retirement income is drastically increased to $44,000 + $31,680 in SS = $75,680 versus $47,760 without following my advice. That’s $27,920 more annual retirement income! Conclusion: knowing the rules of SS and your employer pension can yield much more retirement income for your bucket list dreams.
Free live seminars and lunch:
• Saturday, June 12 at The Old Spaghetti Factory, 3155 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, at 10:45 a.m.; • Sunday June 6 at The Hyatt Place 3535 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, at 10:30 a.m. Topic: “Double Your Social Security & Other Retirement Income and Pay No Tax!”
RSVP: 480-706-0177 or harold_ wong@hotmail.com.
Dr. Harold Wong earned his Ph.D. in economics at University of California/ Berkeley and has appeared on over
400 TV/radio programs.
