TUCSON, ARIZONA — Si Schorr was inducted into the CCIM Tucson Real Estate Legends Tuesday at the CCIM Annual Forecast Meeting. The induction takes place each year to honor those “legends” who have built the commercial real estate community in Tucson from its early beginnings.

The following presentation was read at the induction, presented by Jim Marian, CCIM, of Chapman Lindsey Commercial Real Estate and George Larsen, CCIM, of Larsen Baker:

Si Schorr is in top story telling form.  The story starts with a lettuce farmer named Bud Antle who once owned Peppertree Farms in Marana.  Dow Chemical Company was the property owner.  Then came Lew McGinnis, a storied real estate genius.  Charlie Keating got involved.  Tucson real estate legend Robert Sarver got into the act.

But it was Si Schorr who choreographed the property that is now the centerpiece of the Town of Marana.  You see, the lettuce farmer owned the land that became Cortaro Farms/Continental Ranch.  It is quite a story, and you will hear more about it from our 2018 real estate Legend … Si Schorr.

Not many of us knew Tucson in 1957.  That is when Si and his bride Eleanor moved to Tucson from New York City.  They came to Tucson for its healthy climate.  Their introduction to our town in 1956 was via the Benson Highway in a Ford convertible.  It was some honeymoon trip!

Si was a newly minted lawyer in 1957, and in those days, young lawyers were mentored by the likes of Roy Drachman and Evo DeConcini.  They told Si to get involved and help mold Tucson’s future. 

Si took their advice to heart.  He served on the City Planning and Zoning Commission, then later he was Tucson’s Assistant City Manager, and then Urban Renewal Director.  Later, he was the City’s Special Counsel for Urban Renewal. He helped bring us the Tucson Convention Center and a myriad of downtown buildings.

He was also a founding board member of Pima Community College and helped buy their west campus land (for $2.50/acre!).  He was chairman of the State Transportation Board and was a founding Board Member of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council.

There’s more ….  Si was Building Chair of the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the first Chairperson of the Regional Transportation Authority.  He served on the Tucson Airport Authority and the Tucson Parks and Recreation Commission.

All the while, Si was a practicing lawyer representing the who’s who of Tucson’s commercial real estate developers (most of them also Legends alumni).  Si was long ago recognized by his peers as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for his land use/zoning law expertise.

And of course, Si played Father knows Best to his lovely wife Eleanor and his four children, two of whom are his law partners.  Quite a busy, happy, and purposeful life!

And oh the stories Si call tell!  He was here for Tucson’s highlights (IBM’s relocation to Tucson in 1976) and for its low lights (the Motorola fiasco in the late 1970s).  He was the go to lawyer for GAC, the largest land developer in the world.  He represented the land owner for the largest rezoning case ever in Pima County.  He figured out how to get Williams Centre built.  He’ll tell us some of these stories about Tucson’s past.

Si worked alongside of Tucson Legends like Roy Drachman, Bill Estes, Peter Herder, Joe Kivel, and Bert Lopez.  He helped guide Tucson’s growth and prosperity over the past sixty years, as it evolved from a small town to a big city.  Si is still contributing to our city today and, in his 8^th decade, is still practicing law as a senior partner in Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie.

Tucson CCIM Real Estate Legends welcomes Si Schorr and thanks him for getting involved and helping to mold Tucson.

TUCSON, Arizona — The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) 2015 approved sale of Townsend Middle School closed this week at 2120 N Beverly Ave. in Tucson to Pima Medical Institute (PMI) for $5.63 million.  The site will be developed into a medical educational campus with a mix of medical office and small retail use on the excess land.

The buyer, Pima Medical Institute has been helping students change their lives for 40 years, providing training and education for careers in health care. Pima Medical Institute offers certificate programs, associate degree programs and bachelor’s degree programs. Students get the training needed for a new career in less than a year, earn an associate degree in less than two years, or earn a bachelor’s degree in health care.

Soon after PMI became the successful bidder, Jim Marian of Chapman Lindsey Commercial Real Estate and Linda Morales of The Planning Center began the planning process tasked with creating a vision for the campus. Together with the neighborhood, they developed a concept that retains a majority of the 102,741-square-foot school building, and redirects traffic onto Craycroft, away from the neighborhoods.

The existing ball-fields were being heavily used by local soccer clubs that had funded the lighting of the fields. So a plan, in cooperation with the City of Tucson and County Parks and Recreations, was put into place to relocate these clubs to other fields at Booth-Fickett Middle School for the clubs to continue there.

Neighbors were also concerned about losing the ability to walk the school grounds in the evening and on weekends, so the development team proposed a walking path through the site that would continue neighborhood access to the new medical education campus.

Since the site is larger than needed, PMI formed a joint venture with Craig Masters and Walter Hoge of Rio West to develop a portion of the property into a mix-use medical office and small retail use that would enhance the medical education campus.

The sale is the largest yet for a closed campus by the Tucson Unified School District governing board. Proceeds from these sales must be used for specific purposes such as to pay off bonds, reduce taxes, improve existing schools, or to purchase new school sites.

For additional information on this transaction, Marian can be reached at 520.747.4000 and Morales can be contacted at 520.623.6146.

TUCSON, Arizona — Humberto “Bert” Lopez was inducted into the CCIM Tucson Real Estate Legends Tuesday at the CCIM Annual Forecast Meeting. The induction takes place each year to honor those “legends” who have built the commercial real estate community in Tucson from its early beginnings.

The following presentation was read at the induction, presented by Jim Marian, CCIM, of Chapman Lindsey Commercial Real Estate and George Larsen, CCIM, of Larsen Baker:

Bert Lopez was born in Nogales as an “anchor baby” from Mexico. At times, his family relied on welfare to survive. His father died when he was 11 years old.  His high school counselor said “Humberto, you’re not college material…”  For a while, he was a field worker…

Maybe we should build a border wall….

But rather than build a wall or feel sorry for a poor Nogales kid who was forced to go to work when he was 11 years old, we are here to celebrate the human spirit that sometimes compels a young man to rise from these desperate circumstances to the pinnacle of his profession.

This is Humberto Lopez’ story

About that beginning:  It’s all true.  Bert worked to support his family starting in 1957, the year his father died, because his family needed him to. When the family moved to Nogales, Arizona, he attended Nogales High School while working 44 hours per week at a Nogales grocery store.

When he was told he was not college material, he found a way to attend Cochise College.  He proved his guidance counselor wrong when he graduated from the University of Arizona in 1969 with a degree in accounting.

Right out of college, he landed a job with accounting firm Deloitte, Haskins & Sells in Los Angeles.  He married his college sweetheart, Czarina.

About that time, Bert read a book that changed his life:  It was “How I turned $1,000 into $1,000,000 in real estate” by William Nickerson.  He kept working as an accountant at Deloitte, but he thought he could do some real estate investing on the side.

He borrowed $1,000 for his first deal. It was a single-family lot in Nogales…. he paid $3,500 for it (those were the days).  Six months and one day later, he sold it for $7,000.  He was on his way.

Bert joined the National Guard to meet his military Selective Service commitment.  He found himself serving with other business executives who had that same commitment, so he organized them into an investment partnership…. and this was the start of the Lopez real estate empire.

By the time Bert was 29 years old, though still employed by Deloitte, Bert was making more money syndicating apartment buildings than the senior executives at Deloitte.  His real estate partnerships extended throughout the Southwest.

By 1975, it was time to cut his ties to Deloitte and fly solo.  He brought along his great friend and co-investor/partner Glenn Toyoshima, CPA and founded HSL Properties.

He was also busy raising a family, with wife Czarina and daughter’s Iovanna who came along in 1970 and Iliana, who blessed their lives in 1986.  Those were heady years for HSL Properties; he was right in the middle of California’s booming real estate market.

By 1980, Bert Lopez had already achieved that pinnacle of success.  He was on top of his game, with a beautiful wife and two young children.  He had enough money.  He thought maybe he should retire back to Tucson and play golf.

He bought a classic home in El Encanto (where he and Czarina still live) and settled into “retirement”.

Thank goodness golf is a time-consuming game and Bert is an impatient person.  Retirement lasted just a few months!

From his new base in Tucson, HSL Properties has become a legend in Tucson real estate.  His company has formed more than 200 different partnerships and joint ventures that have helped our community grow.

Bert is an informed risk taker and was an early believer in downtown Tucson.  He bought the Santa Rita Hotel (now the TEP building) in 1977, along with a number of other properties in subsequent years, making HSL the largest downtown property owner.  He kept his faith in downtown through a lot of lean years.  Now, almost 40 years later, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for Tucson’s downtown core.

He has owned and operated over 25,000 apartment units during his career. He current operates approximately 11,000 units, of which about 9,000 are located in Tucson.

He has developed and revitalized over 2,000 hotel rooms for our tourist trade. He survived multiple real estate meltdowns that many of his peers never recovered from.  His companies employ over 1,000 Tucsonans in his hotel and apartment operations and through his construction activities.

And he gives back generously to our community and to the country that gave him the opportunity to succeed.  Bert and Czarina do not publicize all the charities they and their family and businesses support…. but their contributions are in the multiple millions of dollars.  Bert has served on many nonprofit boards, including as Chairman of the U of A Foundation, the United Way, the YMCA and the Catholic Foundation.  He has also served on the board of a number of New York Stock Exchange listed corporations, including Pinnacle West and Arizona Public Services (APS).

He has been honored by many organizations, including as Father of the Year and Man of the Year. His HS Lopez Family Foundation continues the tradition of giving back to the community, with his hope that the Foundation will continue for many decades into the future.

Now semi-retired, with his nephew, the equally brilliant Omar Mirales at the helm of HSL Properties, and his old friend Glenn Toyoshima riding shotgun, Bert can reflect on his journey from a bag boy in a Nogales supermarket to a legend in the commercial real estate industry and an example of the opportunity to succeed that our country should make available to all of our children.

Maybe that wall isn’t necessary…

Tucson CCIM Real Estate Legends welcomes Humberto S. Lopez!