After years of debate over the outdated and overstuffed building, Madison Park Technical Vocational High School may find a new home close to its current location, according to a new city proposal.

“Preliminary analysis suggests that using part of (Parcel P3) for Madison Park’s rebuild could save hundreds of millions of dollars, improve site layout for the school, prevent the athletic fields from being taken offline during years of construction, and leave plenty of remaining land to reconstitute an economic development parcel that could be actually economically feasible,” a city spokesperson said. “We look forward to community input through the evaluation and design processes.”

Madison Park, Boston’s only vocational school, currently shares space in Roxbury with the O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science.

The new proposal to expand the schools’ nearly 50-year-old space was presented to the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee on Jan. 12.

Under the new plan, the city would allow the current residential and life science space designation for P3 — around 330,000 square feet of vacant land on Tremont Street across from the current Madison Park building — to expire. That would open the door to explore the feasibility of constructing a new school building on the parcel.

City officials at the meeting stressed that more community engagement on the plan would be coming and “no other planning decision has been made beyond letting the designation expire.”

The proposal follows news in December that Madison Park had been selected for the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Core Program Eligibility Period, the first step for the project to receive a significant boost state funding.

The Madison Park project will go into a 270-day eligibility period, during which potential plans for the project will be examined. If schools are awarded MSBA funding, it can cover 30 to 40% of a project’s cost.

Boston Deputy Chief of Operations Patricia Cafferky called the Madison Park build a “massive historic investment” expected to be the most expensive school project in the history of Massachusetts.

“That’s partly a function of the vocational nature of the school,” Cafferkey said. “So per every student, you have to basically quadruple the amount of size of the building. It’s just a very unique kind of school building. We’re looking at modernizing the learning spaces and really linking the academic and the vocational spaces together; bringing new modern CTE workshops not only students but also community members can access; expanding the enrollment potential for the school; and then strengthening partnerships and really that co-op program.”

City plans previously examined options to renovate part of the current building and use a “scatter site school” with private partners throughout the city, but found the “operational and logistic challenges were immense,” officials said.

School officials also examined constructing a new Madison Park building where the football and baseball fields are currently, but decided the loss of the fields and construction “extremely disruptive.”

Both operations were estimated to cost between $680 and $720 million, in addition to operating costs — “massively higher” than what the city budgeted for, city officials presented. The new P3 site plan could save between $84 and $147 million.

“They were both found to be not ideal solutions, which is why we were looking for alternative sites,” said Cafferkey. “And P3 was named as a something that we should at least be looking at through this new MSBA study.”

The long-vacant P3 lot was previously designated in 2022 under “Plan Nubian Square” to house 282 rental units and 184 home ownership unit — with most income restricted — along with life sciences space, retail space, a museum and more.

“The current P3 designation is set to expire at the end of this month as the proposed development has not advanced after three years and the overall project—relying on lab space to generate enough profit to support affordable housing and a nonprofit center—is not financially viable,” a city spokesperson said.

City officials emphasized the school build would not “abandon the aspirations” the neighborhood and city had for the lot, and plans to continue development on the remainder of the parcel would be explored.

Several members of the Oversight Committee on Jan. 12 offered some criticism of the city’s process and called for a lot more community involvement in the plans.

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“For someone to have worked on proposals, to have had it accepted by the community, by the city of Boston, and then all of a sudden, there’s a change that was not brought up to them before they were not aware of it, and all of a sudden they’re getting this information,” said committee member Dorothea Jones. “It just does not sit right with me as far as the economic development of Nubian Square.”

City Councilor Miniard Culpepper called for transparency and inclusive engagement before final decisions are made and alignment with the original neighborhood goals for the lot.

“For generations, Roxbury residents have fought for meaningful investment, transparency, and shared decision-making,” said Culpepper. “While the goal of a world-class Madison Park is one I fully support, how we build it and where it is built must be a collaborative process—done with the community, not to the community.”