Newbie- Land purchase and development of Retail Shells

[Chirag Mehta]

Let me start this off with a bit of my background.  I own 5 sfr in San Antonio and rent them out with a property manager handling all details.  I am currently in the corporate world-tech sales and wanting to accelerate this business but taking a different and more complex route.  

I have my eyes set on a plot of land near my home where there is high income and significant traffic in a rapidly growing area in Cedar Park, Texas (north of Austin).  My objective is to buy about an acre of land, that is already leveled, access is being done, and utilities are going to be 5 feet from the property; and then build 3-4 shell retail spots on my plot, owner occupy one of them with a business and lease out the others.

I am meeting with a developer this weekend, but have some wrong numbers regarding the average cost of building a shell space.  I have meetings with my lawyer to discuss partnership contract and acct for the financial piece.

Since this is extremely new, I am building a team of a contractor, broker, loan officer, accountant, Lawyer and investors.  I have been interview these folks and almost down to the right folks.

What I am seeking from the community is experience from those that have done this and have been successful but also those that have pitfalls to learn from those to either not make the same mistake, or do what works.  I am happy to provide any and all detail and more so...if you are in the austin/cedar park Texas area and are looking to partner and you have experience in this area...I am all ears.

Thank you in advance to all that replied!