The Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission will move its administrative offices to a building downtown next to the Alexandre Mouton House later this year.

The commission will retain its Visitors Center on the city’s north side at 1400 SW Evangeline Thruway, president and CEO Ben Berthelot said, as long as possible. The new building, located at 1100 Lafayette St., has almost double the space and will put the agency closer to downtown.

Construction, priced at $918,789, should be complete by the first of August, he said.

“When people come to a destination, one of the first stops is downtown,” Berthelot said. “We’re just really a small part of the revitalization and growth of downtown, which we all know is important to the success of our region.”

The 6,700-square-foot building has been vacant for several years but has been used as a school, offices for an oil field company and an art studio. The office will house the commission’s 15 full-time employees, leaving one part-time employees and 18 volunteers to staff the visitors’ center, Berthelot said.

The building also has a 3,500 square feet of warehouse space, about a third of which the commission will utilize while possibly leasing out the rest.

“This will prepare us for the future,” Berthelot said. “Hopefully we’ll never have to find another building again.”