The former Educomp building, a downtown Vineyard Haven landmark at 4 State Road, is back on the list of possibilities for a new Tisbury town hall, town administrator Jay Grande told the Gazette this week.

“The owner [Xerxes Agassi] has enough flexibility that he would be willing to consider a creative approach to having the town occupy that space,” Mr. Grande said.

Tisbury officials tried without success to negotiate for the building when it went on the market in 2020 after 40 years as a family-owned art and office supply store. Plans discussed at the time would have used it first as the temporary Tisbury School during campus construction, moving town offices in once the school project is completed in 2024.

Mr. Agassi, who purchased the building for $2.4 million in late 2020, is seeking Martha’s Vineyard Commission approval for a mixed-use redevelopment of housing and office space that has been criticized for its size and scale.

Mr. Grande said that Mr. Agassi is also open to leasing the first two floors to Tisbury, potentially under a long-term commitment that could lead to town ownership of the entire building.

“You could envision it as town hall quite easily, with an expansion,” Mr. Grande said.

Tisbury’s municipal offices have been scattered for more than three decades, with the town clerk and finance department in town hall on Spring street, most other departments sharing a set of modular units on High Point Lane, and executive staff recently relocated to the public works building nearby.

“It would be nice to unify town administration under one roof. I think it would be much more customer responsive,” Mr. Grande said.

The town voted in 2018 to buy a parcel on West William street, across from the school, as a future town hall site, purchasing it for $675,000 in 2019 and demolishing an existing structure. But the cost of new construction could be excessively burdensome for property owners, who will spend the next 30 years repaying the $82 million in bonds for Tisbury School construction and face a still-unknown share of the impending Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School project, Mr. Grande said.

The town also needs to finance its sewer extension, which will place another toll on taxpayers, he said.

Under these circumstances, Mr. Grande said, the centrally-located Educomp building becomes an appealing possibility.

“We have developed some conceptual floor layouts, showing how existing town hall employees can be relocated [and] also have room for future expansion for meeting space and so forth, which would really accommodate consolidated town offices at that location,” he said.

Tisbury also has the option of buying or leasing modular units that are now in use at the temporary Tisbury School, to house municipal offices on town-owned property until a building project becomes more feasible, Mr. Grande said.

“As an interim step, it should be considered, but as a permanent [solution] it wouldn’t,” he said.

With Mr. Agassi’s project already before the MVC and the modular classrooms due for removal after the Tisbury School project finishes next year, Mr. Grande said the town needs to look closely — and quickly — at the relative costs of these options.

“They’re time sensitive,” he said.

At Mr. Grande’s request, the select board last week approved his request to form a task force with town treasurer Jon Snyder and representation from the finance and advisory committee, to review the fiscal impacts.

“It’s really a money decision, and what is best for the taxpayer and what scenario would get us to this place,” he said.