Working for a development company is indeed the best route.
Personally, I don't think having a mentor you meet on a monthly basis is going to adequately show how to develop commercial real estate.
I believe a complimentary route to take would be to join a professional developer group like UDI (Urban Development Institute)
http://www.udiedmonton.com/ or NAOIP
http://www.naiopedmonton.com/. Maybe just come out to an event to start. These developers build large scale mid rise, high rise, industrial, commercial, and greenfield in Edmonton and surrounding communities. These are active industry players. You will not get a how-to kit on how to become a commercial real estate developer but it will introduce you to the complexity of issues that we deal with on a daily basis.
Development is a very exciting industry if you are looking at a career change seriously. Something that will likely be new to you is the level of industry advocacy to the municipal government. Developers and the municipal government are partners in building the city and we also need to cooperate together to build public infrastructure. There is a tremendous amount of trust in the system that is really established through companies who have earned a good reputation. When it comes time to develop a commercial site, I think you will find that the zoning rules do not allow you to construct what the market wants and you will almost invariably need to go to the city to request a rezoning and some form of variance. Someone with no reputation or investment in the community will have a much more difficult time selling this to the city (and their financing backers, including the bank). Some of the worst stories you will hear from planners regards out of town developers or new developers who are not invested in the community on an ongoing basis and come in and screw up a development because they want to get in and get out as quickly as possible to churn out a buck.
If you come out one of these industry events and talk to a few people, it may help to answer some broader questions for you as well. Why commercial real estate? Why not develop industrial land? Infill? Reclaim brownfield sites? Greenfield?
As an aside, cash demands for commercial development starts at maybe $2 million for a 7000 SF CRU. (Small strip mall)
