Studio start-up advice?

My husband and I have an opportunity to buy a commercial building in the heart of downtown Walbridge (such as it is.)

The building is something like 7500 square feet, and has 2 shopfronts, 2 apartments, and a huge garage for indoor parking. We're going to see it today. There's a 50/50 chance we won't get it.

Has anyone here got experience with commercial studio space, and willing to give advice? What does the artist expect by way of amenities? Is it better to divide the space and refurbish and then rent it, or give a few people the opportunity to stake out prime real estate? I'm envisioning this a lot like the paint studio building at U of I, where we had a lot of very well-used rooms with paint all over the place, north windows, and a couple public spaces that were more or less presentable.

Thoughts? Advice? If you were going to be interested in such a space, what would you like to see?