> In over 8 years, that space and sat empty in the downtown area.

Empty properties that once had a grocery store in them are often that way because the property is under a restrictive covenant preventing any use as a grocery store for some absurdly long period of time (decades, usually)[1]. It's a weirdly unique thing about grocery stores, and can be really harmful to communities where it's just not practical to build new grocery store buildings (and grocery store buildings don't always translate well to other kinds of retail).

It's a common enough problem that it's banned in some places[2].

[1] an example: https://www.marketplace.org/2018/01/12/when-grocery-stores-c...

[2] eg. DC: https://code.dccouncil.us/us/dc/council/laws/22-138