Not top tier retail level finish but very mich high end rental. 

As an S-corp my thought is the three of us will share/ retain 20% of the equity upon refinancing as well as collect the net profit brought in from our rental.A mentor of mine suggested that as the contractor come up with a with a construction estimate/schedule for the project and we could proceed like this...Construction $120K retail market priceAs the contractor I believe I can execute this project for $67k our company could hire another contractor for $120k to do this project.

If you're going to pay retail anyway, just pay retail on paper equities like mutual funds or something like normal people.. 

My question is what are some RE investment opportunities that will 1) provide experience that will be beneficial towards my goal of owning an apartment complex,Investing in passive syndications if you are an accredited investor or investing in crowdfunding platforms that cater to retail investors.

The strip has lots of retail / restaurants and as it gets closer to the edge, turns into historic housing (10s-20s craftsman homes).

Occupied units may reduce the risk of theft.

These homes can be great finds for rentals, but sometimes hard for retail sales. 

Are you going to flip the home retail or make it a rental? 

At the very least you need an experienced commercial retail broker or also a commercial retail attorney to help out.Have you gotten a soft quote for debt with a capital markets mortgage broker and modeled out a return scenario over a 10 to 15 year hold?

Commercial purposes means running a business out of the home, like day care, car wash business, landscaping business where you store large commercial vehicles, retail sales, etc.