Advice Needed -- What should I do?

[John V.]

Before anything, I am not based in the U.S. but with the info that I will give you it should be enough for you to give me your opinion / advice on what I should do with this project.

So my friend and I are looking to do business together. He owns a piece of land (16,544sf) located in one of the prime areas of the city.

His idea is to find an investor that would partner with him on a project. He wants to build a small shopping center in his land.

He wants the investor (me) to put all construction money. On his side, he would be putting the land which is worth today around $60,000 

I told him that I was going to think about it and analyze his offer.

I got a quote from a friend of mine that builds shopping centers. He told me that this project -a beautiful 2,206 sf (2-floors) shopping center-  is going to cost around $650,000 to build including everything (labor, admin, materials, taxes, etc)

The financial projections for this mall show a Net Operating Income of $120,000 annually after taxes

My friend (owner of land) suggested we could split rent 75% for him and 25% for me. Obviously this doesn't make sense to me as it will take many years for me to recover my invested money, and especially more if I get that money financed (if I were to make this investment, I would have to get financing, interest rates are around 9% and they would only lend you maximum for 10 years). 

So, any ideas on what I should do with this project? This piece of land is truly in an incredible location so I really want to take advantage of that and a shopping center is ideal for that place.

Thank you!