Short answer:  Beats the hell outta me.

Land use patterns in the US dictates shopping is rigorously secluded from residental areas.  City transportation policies dictate the automobile is God and all must bow before it.  Construction of shopping malls has degraded such that the buildings are only expected to last for 20 years.  As the McMansions of suburbia expand ever further from the 'urb' the economic value of the underlying Real Estate declines.  

But the cost (valuation) of properties in the city itself have declined even further.  

So, does it make more sense to spend the money  re-invigorating the city?

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre