HSL Properties at 50

BizTUCSONApril 20, 2026

5 minutes read

Building a Legacy in Real Estate & Community

By Jay Gonzales

Ask Humberto Lopez about his vision for building the company that is marking 50 years as a regional real estate developer and a philanthropic force, and he has a series of starting points for the journey.

The actual founding of the company was in 1975 when he and his business partner, Glenn Toyoshima, formed HSL Properties in Tucson.

But it could be when Lopez and Toyoshima met by happenstance working at a “big eight” CPA firm in Los Angeles, starting their jobs on the same day in 1969. Lopez started buying and selling real estate on the side and the two ultimately quit their jobs together to do it full-time.

You could even look back to the days when Lopez, as a 10-year-old living in Nogales, Ariz., started buying and selling newspapers and mowing lawns, sometimes earning $45 a week and keeping only $5 for himself, giving the rest to the family to pay bills.

From the start to today, the vision has remained the same. As HSL Properties was built into a company with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and properties, it has never lost sight of the fact that it also is a company that is leaving a lasting legacy in its community.

“I think it was a natural progression of always believing in integrity and treating people well,” Lopez said, reflecting on why HSL Properties has had

the sustained success to last 50 years in an industry – real estate – that is universally considered volatile.

“I believe in treating people as human beings,” he said. “We’ve all got to be respected. I believe in integrity. I believe in honesty. That’s what has gotten us to where we’re at today.”

It’s a way of doing business that Toyoshima was on board with from the beginning of the business relationship with Lopez. When the two left their Los Angeles CPA firm, they formed one of their own as the foundation of their business. But all the while, Lopez was dealing in real estate until it became fruitful enough to put 100% of their time and effort into the industry, eventually forming HSL Properties.

Toyoshima still lives in Los Angeles, always participated in the operation of the company as executive officer, and still does. He is in Tucson often to be a part of the company’s community and philanthropic activities. He still toils in the business.

A self-described “worker” with a penchant for detail, Toyoshima said his innate trust in Lopez’ business judgment has been the foundation for the business relationship between the two men since the late 1960s.

“I have had, and I still do have a lot of confidence in Humberto,” Toyoshima said. “The guy has a mind that is just geared to making deals. I’m more of a worker. I do a bunch of the detail stuff. I get things done. But he has a kind of a genius mind for real estate. I always just trusted what he came up with and the deals he felt were good.”

As it turns 50, HSL Properties remains Tucson-based and is a company that employs more than 1,000 people – they’re called “team members” at HSL, not employees. Its portfolio includes 42 apartment communities, 11 hotels, four commercial properties and a host of other investments.

Lopez, who turns 80 this fall, turned over day-to-day operation of the business a decade ago to his wife’s nephew, Omar Mireles, who began living with the Lopez family when he was 10 years old.

Mireles, who attended St. Cyril of Alexandria School, Salpointe Catholic High School and Cornell University, didn’t go straight to HSL after college. He built a career as a real estate analyst in New York before joining HSL in 2003 as an executive VP. He’s been president of HSL Properties since 2015.

Mireles, 49, said he recognized the responsibility of taking the reins of a company that was built from the ground up, already highly successful, and was having a massive impact on the Tucson community. His approach to running the business has been different from his uncle, who started the business by being aggressive – yet proficient − in the real estate market in Los Angeles. What hasn’t changed is the company’s commitment to the community.

“I suppose it’s like getting a really nice car,” Mireles said. “Even though you want to get on the road and just open it up, you want to be careful as you’re getting out of the lot that you’re not going to get T-boned by that truck.

“I’ve always taken a relatively conservative approach to business,” he said. “I think Humberto has always been a bit more of that aggressive dealmaker, which has been absolutely great. I think it’s a good, complementary relationship.”

An approach Mireles took with the business was to bring many of the outside operations, such as property management, in-house, forming business entities under the HSL umbrella to run the various aspects of the business. Each segment of the business has its own commitment to the work HSL does in the community and how it represents.

HSL Asset Management was formed to operate and manage the apartment portfolio as well as the internal operation, including human resources. Desert Hospitality Management operates the hotels, which has properties in Tucson, Marana, Mesa and Oklahoma City. Two of those properties are two of Tucson’s prominent resorts, the El Conquistador Tucson and The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain, in which it is a partner with Cottonwood Properties.

The accounting, financials and investor relations for all of the assets are managed by HSL Management Services. HSL Construction Services does all the building, serving HSL Properties as its only client, and has built more than $1 billion in properties.

“It was an evolution of seeing how the company had grown and seeing what the opportunities were,” Mireles said of the consolidation. “We could be a lot more nimble if we had one team that was steering in the exact same direction. That gave us a lot more direct impact into not only the service at the properties, but ultimately the physical attributes of the properties.”

An aspect of the business – the Lopez philosophy – that Mireles has embraced has been the way HSL treats its people, its investors and the community.

The H.S. Lopez Family Foundation, an entity separate from HSL Properties, has dedicated millions of dollars to the community through its three philanthropic priorities – education, welfare and health. Lopez has committed to leaving his wealth to the Foundation to continue the family legacy into future generations.

Those priorities, under Lopez, Toyoshima and Mireles, have extended to the employees who embrace a culture of teamwork and community as they go about their work at HSL.

The list of organizations that receive philanthropic support from HSL and its team members is extensive, including Gospel Rescue Mission, Community Food Bank, El Tour de Tucson, Ronald McDonald House, Alzheimer’s Association, Tucson Pride, Angel Charity for Children, American Heart Association, Tu Nidito, the Jazz Festival, the Tucson Conquistadores, the University of Arizona, and any other organizations that individual employees support.

“What has really been a game-changer has been the engagement of our team,” Mireles said. “At the core of our team truly is that sense of community. As our tagline says, ‘It’s about community,’ it’s not just a tagline on a sign. It’s truly lived by our team members, and you see it in their giving of themselves, of their time, of their resources.”