The problem for tenants with the big enclosed malls is the charge for heating and cooling the mall and for maintaining the mall part of the building.

As a tenant you might get a reasonable lease rate for the space in the mall. But the mall operator also has to recover the cost of heating, cooling, and maintaining that enormous mall space. The tenants all end up paying their share of that amount.

When the mall was new and electricity and natural gas were inexpensive the charge was minor. But now electricity and natural gas are much more expensive and very likely headed higher. The mall is much older and there is much more maintenance that is and will be required. So for tenants the mall charges can be more than the lease payments.

The mall retailer is hard pressed now to sell products at a premium over a non-mall store because the customer simply will not pay a premium.

On top of that many customers view the experience of shopping at a mall to be uninviting at best and dangerous at worst.