Selling an asset is much different than shutting down what is a now a liability.
It's a functional foreclosure, which divests them of their interest much like selling an asset would - do you just mean it's "much different" because of the amount of money they make/lose?
Trying to understand the distinction you're making as it relates to this article and their preexisting plans to exit the market.
The general area has also seen a huge wave of closures including pretty much every anchor tennant with IKEA being the only major business to buck the trend so far.
This isn't a just a "business is going okay but we over leveraged" situation.
The fact that their lender probably wants to squeeze any return they can out of it and they stand to lose far more money leaving it with lights off than at least letting it limp along until they can get someone else on the hook for it, to start.
It could be that the lender also writes off the loss and just shutters the mall, but usually properties in foreclosure stay open because they want to claw back as much make-up ROI as possible on an already down position.
A lot of these buisnesses were largely supported by tourism traffic from asia & white collar work travel buisness and conventions all of which are no longer happening because of public safetey concerns.
It's going to take years before the city does anything.