NEW HAVEN — U.S. Repeating Arms Co. has agreed to open its books to city officials for three months so prospective buyers can see whether the Winchester firearms factory was profitable. USRAC President and CEO Pierre Bourgeois and Mayor John DeStefano Jr. announced a "stand still" agreement Tuesday that gives the city until Sept. 1 to find a buyer for the factory. Bourgeois has signed the agreement, and the mayor is expected to do so this morning. Under the terms of the deal, USRAC will repay the city $850,000 for past tax abatements, pay $150,000 for a consultant to help the city find a new buyer and open its financial records and plant, at 344 Winchester Ave., to qualified buyers. A handful of gun makers, among them Smith & Wesson, have toured the plant since USRAC announced in January it was closing, but none have expressed strong interest. That’s partly because they had limited access to financial data concerning Winchester’s profitability and to the plant itself, officials have said. DeStefano lauded the agreement in a statement released Tuesday. "Without this agreement, U.S. Repeating Arms could have removed all of their equipment and inventory on March 31 and left town," DeStefano said. "Instead, along with meeting their financial commitments to the city, they are providing a reasonable time period in which to market the Winchester site and hopefully to find a successor firearms manufacturer." USRAC will pay to hire Guilford-based Workout Solutions Inc. and Missouri-based MHB Enterprises as liaisons to potential buyers, the agreement says. The consultants will seek manufacturers willing to purchase the property, assume the lease from Science Park and use the Winchester name. Purchase proposals will be due to the city by June 23, and the best one must be selected by July 15, the agreement states. A closing must occur before Sept. 1. USRAC closed the Winchester plant March 29, ending a 140-year tradition and putting 186 factory workers out of their jobs. A posse of politicians, industry insiders and labor leaders have banded together to keep Winchesters made in New Haven but until Tuesday had gotten mostly bad news. Lawyer Robert Berchem of Milford, who is representing USRAC, said the agreement allows the gun maker to depart New Haven with an "absolute commitment" to pay the money it owes and leave the community in "as good a condition as possible." "They were not able to make the venture profitable," Berchem said of USRAC. "But we have paid our employees, we have paid our vendors and to the extent we can help the city take over the location, we thought that the proper thing to do." Left out of Tuesday’s agreement is any mention of the Winchester license, which is needed to produce the Winchester line. City officials have asked USRAC’s parent company, Belgium-based Herstal Group, not to pursue renewing its Winchester license so that a successor in New Haven might assume it. Olin Corp. of Missouri, which manufactures Winchester ammunition, holds the Winchester license and has not said who will win the license. Berchem said USRAC will give a qualified buyer a "fair" opportunity to obtain the Winchester license, but added, "We can’t make any assurances to anyone."