Food 4 Less closes at 5 p.m. today, whether or not it sells the last of its canned tomatoes, product shelves or other leftover items at 2525 Iowa.

What moves into its place remains to be seen.

The store’s owner/operator, Associated Wholesale Grocers, still has a lease for the place but has no plans to open any sort of grocery operation in the 40,000-square-foot building, said Scott Wilmoski, who handles real estate for the Kansas City, Kan.-based cooperative.

No matter what anyone might think, Wilmoski said, nobody has lined up the space – at least not yet.

“There’s tons of rumors going on out there,” said Wilmoski, who declined to disclose terms of the lease. “(But) the lease goes on, unless other arrangements are made.”

The building’s owner, Falgers Inc. of Lincoln, Neb., also hasn’t found a potential tenant to move in alongside the shopping center’s other two occupants, Office Depot and Tuesday Morning.

But people have been making inquiries – some qualified, some not – this month, once Food 4 Less announced it was leaving town after suffering declining sales and the prospect of Wal-Mart getting into the grocery business in the coming year.

Ken Schmanke, president of KS Commercial Real Estate Services Inc., which represents Falgers, said he already was reviewing a “long list” of potential tenants who typically could occupy such a space.

“There’s not too many local, 40,000-square-foot tenants,” Schmanke said. “It most likely will be a regional or national retailer.”

Meanwhile, Food 4 Less continues to sell off the last of its products and fixtures at the Lawrence store. Only a relative handful of the nearly 30,000 items it had in stock at the beginning of the month remain.

With the closing date and time settled, one of the most popular customer questions – Are the registers for sale? – remains unanswered.

“People are asking, but I don’t know,” said Emily Blessing, a cashier who says she will start looking for another job this week. “I’ve worked here for 2 1/2 years, so it’s kind of sad.”