Commercial vacant land advice

[Mona Arora]

Disclaimer: My first post here and I am quite a novice this area and hence am looking for advice. 

I have two commercial properties (vacant land), 3-acres and 1.5 acres, both hard corner lots with a state highway frontage in East Dallas, Texas. Rapidly growing area with plenty of new homes being constructed in the nearby areas. I am a nurse and have bought this land with hard cash purely for investment purposes as I acquired the lands pretty cheap. Please note, hardly any stores in this area since this area is just now growing rapidly. Looking for suggestions:

a. Hold the land and sell in a few years (expect the property price to double in about 7-10 years)

b. Is it possible to invite retail stores like CVS, Starbucks, Denny's etc.? How does this work - can I just cold call them or does this have to go through a real estate agent? If they decide to come to this area, who bears the construction cost (me or the company)?

c. Is it cost-effective to build a strip mall in this area and individually lease out each unit? 

I am not even sure if anyone has done anything like this before? I am able to hold it for a few years (expense wise - property taxes et al.) but if there is a better/more profitable way, I would like to pursue this.

d. Any other way income could be generated on this type of land?

Thanking you in advance for any insights in to this process.

Mona