Advice to New Developers (Strip Malls) ... ???

My friend and I have both been interested in development. We’d like to eventually create large retail destinations. We’re in Phoenix, Arizona and are lucky to be in a great commercial retail market.

We are planning on beginning with strip malls to start a portfolio. We are lucky enough to have access to between $10M and $12M but obviously need to return a decent profit to the investors (who are my partner’s family/business associates).

We both have real estate licenses and I a business college education. As we’ve just begun to dive into this, I’d love any suggestions, things you may have done when you first started differently, etc.

What are the basics in terms of equations we should use to value the property? We are ideally looking at raw land in one of the many areas in the suburbs of Phoenix that have plenty of homes and limited retails.

Any advice would be great and appreciated!