The City-Parish Council on Tuesday approved granting the owners of the former Jefferson Street Market Downtown a restoration tax abatement to help fund improvements and renovations at the 24,500-square-foot site ahead of its likely tenant, tech consulting firm Perficient, moving in some time late this year or early next year.

The 6-3 vote clears the way for Jefferson Street Market LLC to freeze the current property tax value of the building on the 500 block of Jefferson for five years. Missouri-based Perficient joins Canada-headquartered CGI in setting up shop Downtown. CGI will move to a new building under construction at UL Research Park on Cajundome Boulevard sometime next year; it currently occupies the former offices of The Daily Advertiser on the 200 block of Jefferson.

The LLC that bought the old market building on Jefferson in 2010 plans to spend about $1.6 million renovating the building, which also housed for four years the Lafayette Public Library’s main branch while the nearby library was being renovated. About 200 employees are expected to work at the Jefferson Street Market site.