RARITAN, NJ — Stop & Shop's Raritan location off Route 206 and Orlando Drive last days are numbered. The store is officially closing on Thursday.

Many of the store shelves are already empty and barren as the store completes its last week open. The company announced it was closing the location in September.

"After a thorough review of the operating performance of our stores, we made a business decision not to renew our lease at our Raritan store location," Cindy Carrasquilla, spokeswoman for Stop & Shop previously told Patch. All associates were offered positions in nearby stores.

Raritan Mayor Charles McMullin said the cause of closure is due in large part to the property owner's lack of attention to the location. "The previous owner was a real slug in terms of maintenance of the facility," McMullin told Patch. "He drove it into the ground."

The previous owner defaulted on the property about a year ago before RAIT Financial Trust, who held the mortgage, took over the property in the spring of this year. The borough signed an agreement with RAIT that included an extensive list of repairs the company had to do by Aug. 31 to get the property back in order.

RAIT failed to meet the deadline and the borough took them to court in September where a judge gave them 30 days to make repairs on the property.

McMullin said Monday that the repairs have been completed by RAIT, which include repairing holes in the parking lot, repairing broken sidewalks and fencing and more. Now McMullin said the town is looking to find a new anchor store to replace Stop & Shop. McMullin had reached out to Trader Joe's to see if they would be interested in taking over the grocery store's location. But Trader Joe's did not respond to McMullin.