So here's my question: There's a new outdoor shopping center with stores like The Gap, Nike Factory Outlet, etc set to be built close to me. 

I'm not entirely sure that's the route I want to go, but I'm just at the beginning stages so learning as much as I can is my goal right now til I'm ready to make the jump.

Higher education, medicine, farming, ranching, rail, mining, tourism, oil & gas, financial center, tax free shopping for Wyoming residents ;), Billings has it all. 

Yes, I would still "want me some of that" if it is true about the income and the "little work" but at this stage it looks like neither of those points are PROVED.  

At this point you're almost at the "make offer" stage but keep your screening standards high.

@John ThedfordYou can expand from your personal investment/small business arena in stages, and see if and how much you'd be comfortable expandingAs a first step, you can take on passive investment partners on any loan you fund; usually the promoter (you) would get all the points, plus a small servicing fee, then each participant would get the remaining return pro rate with the capital invested.  

You can expect to find 4 bed/3 bath condos in Center City Philadelphia and they will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars upward to the millions. 

If you are planning on doing this in stages it will be somewhat inconvenient and costly because you'll have to maintain two self-directed IRAs: Traditional and a Roth.

I thought the community center would appeal as they could hang out, do online gaming, etc. but still have their own space to return to when they needed some down time.

At this stage, you don't need a bookkeepr or a CPA to do your monthly accounting as one SFH will not generate enough income to justify the expense.