Keep in mind how the concept of an "anchor tenant" works.
For instance, Sears had leases that were as long as 99 years long, with rates that were as low as one dollar per year. (No joke: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/26/kmart-monaco-evans-den...)
The way that the retail model was structured, back in the 70s and the 80s, was that the anchor would bring buyers into the area, and the landlord would make the lion's share of their income off of the stores around it, such as restaurants, jewelry stores, movie theaters, etc.
If all that makes sense, you can see that a lot of these landlords would actually be thrilled to see these department stores go away, because then they could re-purpose the space into something that generates more money.
Fry's Electronics, Sears, Macy's... they're all an example of this.