Best bang for the buck question

[Pearce G.]

I have a ~2.5 acre property under contract zoned "neighborhood commercial" meaning it is a transition zone between residential and heavier commercial activity.  So it could be business/professional offices, convenience or other light retail, or even multi-family residential provided it is in the same structure as a commercial use.

The property currently has a 2100sqft house and a large, detached 3-bay shop/garage which I intend to lease together or separately to commercial tenants.  (Zoning does not allow the house to be used residentially any more.)

That leaves almost 2 full acres of vacant land that I am planning to have subdivided into a separate parcel.  It has its own road frontage with good visibility at a busy intersection (18,000 cars per day).

My question is how to get the most out of the extra 2 acres without pouring a lot of money into buildings and utilities?  Is it better marketed as raw land or will it get more attention if there is a development plan on paper at least?  I was thinking of using proceeds from sale of the vacant land to pay off or pay down the note on the original purchase to maximize the cash flow from the house & garage.  Or maybe I could lease the land as another income stream.

I welcome any ideas.