The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board says the old Barn location posed a lot of challenges for a new high school.
Talks had been underway between the City of Windsor and the school board to build a new Catholic Central High School on the location of the old Barn and Water World.
The current 80-year-old school located on Tecumseh Rd. is old, cramped and some classes are taught off school property.
On October 31, 2016, the province announced $26-million for a new Catholic Central High School.
But catholic board director Terry Lyons says it was determined the downtown property didn't work.
"It is on the designation heritage list so we would have had to work through that, the size was definitely a challenge. Secondary school usually is anyway from 10 to 18 acres and that site is over 5 acres, parking would have been a challenge," he says.