This is essentially going to be a free house and, on top of that, I am now a licensed loan officer and can do the refinance myself to collect a commission on the back end of the refinance making it a steal of deal!

Maybe you can attract some long term employed people (Hospital, Post Office, Grocery Store, Target, Dollar General, etc...)(???)

Try emailing the permit office so that they put the answers to your questions in writing.We are not going to know the answers.

Can anyone explain what I NEED to have firsts and then how we go about discussing with the leasing office?

DO NOT work with this office.

We want to do some renovations and rent it asap as an office building.

You might just have an inexperienced loan officer (I've run into many of them) or a lending firm who has tighter policies. 

I went through 3 slow loan officers before I found the fast one I want to work with.

Especially w first few deals, the sweat-equity partner may only contribute 30% of value, so 30-70 is the arrangement, especially if it's a short-term JV...I think we hear the 50-50 talk from established investors who have built a long-term relationship w investor-partners.Yes, we could get into the minutiae of tracking the dollar-value the "worker" brings to the table over time, which I guess is the spirit of the "mini-mortgage" approach: Estimate the value of their sourced-deal if wholesaled; set an hourly wage for office-work/time spent renovating; charge a leasing fee for tenant placement and 10% of rent or whatever each month for PM moving forward... 

Listen to the all the books, buy the books and highlight the important sections, make a list of what you need/have (documents and office organization), and get on BiggerPockets.