Chandler

Chandler Independent covers the city of Chandler, known for its high-tech industrial manufacturing companies and high-quality schools. 

Chandler boasts a population of more than 280,000 and is home to Intel Corp., one of the largest employers in the state of Arizona. The city has a small airport used mostly for personal or business flights. 

Chandler sports one regional shopping attractions – Chandler Fashion Center. Chandler Fashion Center and the surrounding area has seen growth in the previous few years with new businesses and restaurants taking root in the area. Opened in September 2023, Scheels will be located at the mall. Scheels is a sporting goods store but also features attractions and specialty shops. 

Chandler's downtown area has grown significantly during the past decade with new multifamily housing and restaurants and businesses.

The Overstreet and New Square developments offer mixed-use office and retail space, and new developments for dowwntown condominiums and apartments are in the planning stages. 

In July 2022, Independent Newsmedia acquired Community Impact Phoenix, including Community Impact Chandler. The monthly print newspaper, Chandler Independent, focuses on schools, business, neighborhoods, city government and public safety. The free newspaper is delivered in mailboxes in Chandler. 

America’s 78th-largest and Arizona’s fourth-largest city, having grown from fewer than 30,000 population in a largely farm-based community as late as 1980 to almost 177,000 in mostly suburban growth by 2000.

Founded in 1912 around a ranch owned by veterinarian Dr. A.J. Chandler, the city's focus remained agricultural for decades.

Expansion of industry was steep in the 1980s and 1990s, including the growth of tech manufacturing plants for communications and “chip” firms such as Microchip, Motorola and Intel.

Today, Chandler is a diverse municipality, with all-ages affluent families flocking to the nearly built-out single-family homes in the south and eastern parts of the city and redevelopment of older more northern parts.

Key industries include microchips and support, clean technology and renewable energy, aerospace and aviation, light manufacturing, advanced business services, finance and insurance. It has its own municipal airport.

The Chandler Unified School District — one of the largest in the state — serves most of the city, though Mesa and Kyrene districts have Chandler campuses.

Chandler-Gilbert Community College has one of its two main campuses near downtown Chandler and the state’s largest universities all have satellite sites in the city.

Chandler has a park in nearly every neighborhood. Tumbleweed Regional Park’s 200-plus acres are used for many recreation purposes and special events, such as the annual Ostrich Festival.

Top attractions in town include downtown and other shopping sites, such as the Chandler Fashion Center mall, along with the Center for the Arts and a museum.

The digital daily newspaper covers the entire city of Chandler, delivering readers stories on issues affecting their quality of life and promoting involvement in their local neighborhoods through activism, entertainment and business news.

The Chandler Independent initially was a weekly newspaper until the issue of May 25, 2011, when it ceased publication. It was Vol. 24 No. 11.