ABBEVILLE, La. (KLFY) – Now that the Vermilion Parish Tourism Office has moved to downtown Abbeville, it leaves an empty space owned by the city with a possible new purpose.

“The mayor and the city council (Abbeville) have signed off on, this is what we want to do with the building, they’re asking me to bring back the costs,” said Touchet. 

He says the building can now serve as a meeting place for local organizations in the city. 

“And just saying to them, here’s a meeting room, here’s a place where you can do all of this planning. This is something where you can really take advantage of as far of the space, that would be open to you, free-of-charge throughout the year,” said Touchet.

It’s an estimated 1000 square foot building that can fit up to 45 people.

Touchet says the money that will be spent on the renovations, will come from the city’s sales tax dollars, which is their capital improvement.

“At that point, when we get those costs, we’re going to bring it back to the city council and the mayor, and get final approval. Then from that point, we can move forward with construction,” said Touchet.

Meanwhile downtown, Alison Miller and her team at the Vermilion Parish Tourist Commission are settling into their new home.

“A lot of our visitors do come to downtown Abbeville of course to eat, we have several great oyster bars, so it made more sense for us to be downtown,” said Miller, who’s the Executive Director of the Tourist Commission.

She says the new building space will provide more exposure to tourists and hopefully increase the local sales tax not only for Abbeville, but the parish.

“If you’ve never been to Vermilion Parish, I suggest you drive down 167 and check us out,” she said.

Touchet tells News 10 that once the plans are approved by the city, he is hopeful the renovations to the building will start within the next month, and that they should be complete by July 1.