Some commercial landlords either get some benefit from having a non rented property or they are just plain greedy.
There is a stand alone building on the way into town here that was a thriving restaurant for years. The building sold and the restaurant refused to go along with the significant rent increase and shut down.
5 years later and the place has only been rented for a total of 1 year.
That seems like a situation where the owner can cover the cash flow of an empty building (taxes, maintenance, mortgage if any etc.) but does not want to have the building's value drop as a result of signing up a tenant at a lower rental rate. The value of commercial property is often tied closely to the rent the property is receiving or what people think it can get.
Once you lease it out at a lower rate the value of the building decreases.