There are rows and rows of duplexes in these areas and their relatively to Chestnut/Market/walnut st  and the universities make them attractive areas.  

Currently the SBA is loaning on storage units with an attractive package. 

If you have some renovation/rehab experience, you might be better off focusing on looking for undervalued MF properties that need work that you can buy at an attractive discount.

I know it's near the lake which makes the house more attractive and the ARV will be higher but my assumption was she was the owner of just the house and not the land? 

I think there are some attractive opportunities in your area; there is hard money available, but since I'm looking for buy and hold properties, I think this option (1 year loan term) it way too risky for me.

I always rent a little below market, attract a crowd, but I didn't realize rents dropped due to the recession, so I was asking a little too much for the market. 

Neither of us are handy so while fix and flip seems attractive to get a jump on our REI career, I'm not sure it's the best plan for us with no handiness and no current contractor contacts.

But my question is, how to decide how to renovate the building to attract certain businesses for leasing option.

If you do buy the worst property in the best neighborhood, you don't want it to remain the worst property in the neighborhood - there's a point at which you want to do a better job of attracting customers than your competitors, and that's going to be difficult to do if your place is a dump relative to the rest of the neighborhood. 

I rolled some debt into the deal to make it more attractive to the bank.. more profitable for them.