St. Ann's Warehouse has found a new home -- in its same old neighborhood. The avant-garde theater company, currently located on Water Street, has signed a three-year lease on a 19,000-square foot warehouse at the corner of Jay Street and Plymouth Street.

Artistic Director Susan Feldman said it was important for the group to find a "versatile" area for the kind of productions the group commissions. She said St. Ann's also wanted to stay in the neighborhood where it's already been for more than a decade.

"The main thing that we really wanted out of this situation was to be able to continue to program uninterrupted, and to be able to keep our relationships with artists and with our audiences, and we didn't want to be nomadic, and we didn't want to roam," she said. "But we also had strong needs. So we needed to have column-free space, of a certain amount, and we needed high ceilings, and this place has both. And it has a great feeling. So it has a lot of the feeling of our current warehouse."

The current St. Ann's space at 38 Water Street is slated for redevelopment. Earlier this year, the group had sought, unsuccessfully, to move into a 19th-century tobacco warehouse across the street. But some local groups challenged the move, arguing the land was intended for public, and not private use.

Feldman said the group's new venue should be ready for St. Ann's upcoming Fall 2012 season.