When speaking of commercial real estate this terminology refers loosely to any piece of land bought with the intent to make money on the property. This includes any real estate that is bought to be used for apartment complexes, industrial production, strip mall, office buildings, restaurants, etc. It can also include any vacant land that has the potential to hold property that can make money.
Within the category of commercial real estate there are some smaller divisions. The biggest portion of this large category is retail real estate. This smaller division includes malls, hotels, shopping centers, and buildings for medical and dental centers. Another smaller division is office properties. This includes office buildings designed to hold one or multiple businesses with the owner of the building receiving profits from the rent the tenants of the individual offices pay each month.
You can also opt for retail and office space for lease.
There are two other categories that fall between commercial and residential real estate making the property to be a combination of both. One of those categories is industrial real estate. This type can include warehouses, garages, and factories but can also include farmland and the homes on the land where the farmers and their families live. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction the last category, multiple housing, can be included under commercial and/or residential property.
Therefore, to call a piece of land commercial real estate it really depends on what the intent of the buyer is for the use of the property and where it is located. This is especially true with vacant land that has not been developed. For example, if the vacant piece of land is near a neighborhood of single-family residences it would most likely have houses built there but if it is near restaurants and other retail stores it would be used for building something commercial to make money off of.
When purchasing vacant land or property with the intent of using it commercially you need to make sure that it has been zoned as commercial property. To find this out you would need to visit your city government offices and look at the city map, which shows which properties are zoned commercial and which ones are zoned residential. If the property that you want is zoned residential you will need to seek a variance, which is special permission to cross over the residential zone boundary in order to build commercial.