most developers want established tenants, not mom/pop shops which have a much higher rate of failure. We have a friend who tried to open a restaurant in a local strip mall that's about 60% occupied, they were told no because the realtor would rather keep the place empty then deal with the likelihood of failure of the establishment.
I don't know how it works in commercial real estate, but if I don't think someone is going to be able to pay the full rent on their lease for the length of the lease, then I am not going to rent to them. Been there, done that. You have a choice at that point, you either take a loss and let the person out of the lease and then have to spend the time and money to get it back in rental shape, and risk it sitting empty for a period of time, or litigate, which means that you are spending money on a lawyer taking legal action to get money out of someone that's proven they already don't have money. So I kind of get it.
