While the purchase of the Magnat building and its acres of floor space earlier this year by downtown real estate entrepreneur Eric Suher for $300,000 presents an opportunity for Florence, the somewhat sudden shuttering of the business occupying it raises some serious financial questions for tax-strapped Northampton.

The sprawling Magnat building, when it was occupied by a functioning industrial machine company, was assessed at $1,117,000 for property tax purposes. Now it stands empty and silent.

Within the last six weeks an auction was held to sell off the machinery and heavy equipment in the building and for several days large flat-bed trucks lugged away dozens of huge industrial machines.

It is not hard to imagine that, Suher, the new owner of the now vacant structure, will seek a downward revision of the assessment of the building which in turn will result in lower property taxes, not a welcome prospect for the city.

A message left for Suher seeking information about his plans for the building in light of the failure of its only tenant went unanswered as did a message for the owners of newly-departed Magnat Machine Tech Inc., Curtis Rutsky and Richard Harley.

Suher purchased the building in February from Magnat Realty Trust, the successor entity of the business formerly owned and operated by George Bernard of Holyoke, who died in 1998.

Bernard, who been in the heavy machine business locally for many years, including operating a plant in Easthampton, had purchased the 34 Maple St., Florence property in 1976 from National Gypsum Co., which had operated the Multi-Color Gravure Co. at the site for many years before moving it to Hatfield. The Multi-Color property previously had been owned and operated by the New England Fire Door Co.

In a conversation with downstreet.net earlier this year, Barbara Bernard said that she tried to operate the Magnat Machinery Co. for a while after her husband's death but she was "a novice."

She soon decided to sell the business to Rutsky and Harley, which she did in January, 1999, for $100,000 "for the entire operation," she explained, retaining through a real estate trust the physical structures that make up the factory complex .

Now only a little more than two years later that company had folded and its equipment and other assets were sold to Mitchell Machine Inc. of Springfield. Like

Suher, the Bernards are long-time Holyoke residents and their families are known to each other. "I knew Eric Suher very well, I really like him," Barbara Bernard said. "I had known him since he was a kid."

Suher checked out the building, which at that time still had a tenant, and the deal was concluded, with the actual transfer of ownership of the Magnat building being made to LHIC, Inc., of 47 Jackson St., Holyoke, with which Suher is associated.

"I really gave it to him for a very reasonable price," Barbara Bernard said of the purchase figure. "I just wanted to get rid of it. That's the story. He did not say what he wanted to do with the building. He just loves to buy real estate. He's a very smart businessman. He's on the board at one of the banks, he's got a big team, there are fabulous people working for him."

How all of this plays out for downtown Florence only time will tell.