• Malls have a lifespan as they were originally built, and developers of large but lagging centers have no desire to keep them after deteriorating neighborhoods or online shopping or newer competitors have sapped their strength.
• The situation has created opportunities for new companies that believe they have ways to make the properties profitable by changing tenants and sometimes right-sizing the malls with bulldozers and wrecking balls.
• Data show that almost a third of enclosed malls in the U.S. are generating less than the $300 per square foot of income that is considered the standard for defining a healthy mall.

From the article:

Many struggling shopping malls are trying to find salvation by going small?in their purchasers, sales prices and, in some cases, size. ...