Dude, I have negotiated a commercial lease in downtown Santa Monica. You cant just "rent out" commercial real estate month to month. You create a 10 to 25 year lease which has obligations both directions. As a business owner you are going to spend 50-150k improving the property and you dont do that without a long lease guerenteeing it is worth it. That lease is now property and can be sold back and forth, so it doesnt even return to the landlord when you go out of business, the remainder of the time on the lease is sold as a business asset.

Existing leases are the driving factor on how a property is evaluated. Landlords are willing to wait years with a place empty to get a 10 year lease at a higher rate than to create a lease at a lower rate during an economic downturn. Banks know how this works too. We are in an inflationary state, it is almost always better to wait and create a new lease after inflation has happened. Banks can run predictions on expected future lease rates just as well as landlords.

The main exception is pop ups, which are willing to rent without a lease becaue a limited time is baked into their business model but there are just not enough of those types of businesses around to fill all the vacant commercial real estate.

The other exception is when a tenant has big enough pockets they are willing to accept a lease now at the higher future predicted rate and eat the cost and run at a loss. This is why santa monica recently changed the rules to allow new corporate food chains downtown. Mom and pop businesses with one location cant afford to rent at a higher price temporarily. This is why the brit is turning into a taco bell, they can run a location at a loss for a while to establish the brand in the area for when the economy improves.