I found another interesting article on this question: https://citylimits.org/2017/12/05/diagnosing-nycs-vacant-sto...

The additional reasons they give:

  * increasing prevalence of chain stores who move slower on real estate deals
  * willingness of national chains to pay high rents and lose money on a store 
    in a famous neighborhood to boost their brand reputation
  * landlords "warehousing" properties, waiting for rezoning or new development
  * rezoning causing an oversupply of commercial property in an area
  * unrealistic expectations of landlords who have not adjusted to lower
    rents caused by online competition
  * sunk-cost fallacy - for properties bought in 2014-2015, landlords could
    face "losing" money by renting for less than their mortgage
  * increased prevalence of "demolition clauses" in leases - that allow
    for eviction of tenants if the landlord wants to demolish the building -
    making it harder to find a tenant