I think they would fail less frequently if they were willing to subdivide the ground-level spaces a bit more. I notice a lot of the ground floors are built with a very small number of entrances, so they cannot easily be divided up for small-scale tenants.

From the builder's perspective, I'm sure it must be cheaper to build a smaller number of larger units, and from a landlord's perspective, it is probably better to have a smaller number of larger tenants; but from the neighborhood's perspective, it would be nice if there were more little hole-in-the-wall spaces for niche businesses.