"We're going through a honeymoon phase, but in short we've seena guy in Mayor Nutter, who has jumped in and doing what he saidhe'd do. He's leading, he's very proactive, he's decisive when heneeds to be," Robert Walters, executive managing director at CBRichard Ellis tells GlobeSt.com. "It's not rhetoric or the media.He's earning his high marks. It's really been a positive andrefreshing five months for the mayor."

Nutter was sworn in this January. Since then, he has proposeddisposing of the gross receipts portion of the business privilegetax within eight years, and he has also worked on reducing the netincome portion of the business privilege tax. Nutter is a formerinvestment manager who took pro-business stances on thePhiladelphia City Council, where he argued for cuts in wage andbusiness privilege taxes. He also changed the way city contractsworked by rallying against the "pay to play" culture.

"He's delivered a message that he's very interested in helpingattract business and address issues that can help us stimulate evengreater business activity--especially on the tax front. I thinkhe's taken a strong and very proactive approach not only attractingbusiness to the city, but certainly being sensitive and empathetictowards some of the issues we have and have had over the past fewyears," says Walters. "He's trying to help along with the businesscommunity and trying to help identify ways to stimulate ourbusiness economy and to grow it if at all possible."