BATON ROUGE - Last week, the mayor's office announced it was looking to bring former head of Baton Rouge tourism Butch Spyridon back to the capital area to help revamp the Raising Cane's River Center, which they say is an essential economic driver for downtown Baton Rouge.

"I look forward to the opportunity to help this city achieve its own vision, its own dreams, and its own opportunity," Spyridon said during the presser.

Along with the River Center, Spyridon will also help with the plans for a new hotel downtown.

All of this, with hopes of increasing tourism in the city.

"This is not an easy lift, it is not a quick lift, and if anybody thinks there is a magic bullet. I am in the wrong town, and I need to leave today," Spyridon said during the presser.

The Metro Council approved the agreement Wednesday night, along with making Visit Baton Rouge the temporary management for the River Center.

Visit Baton Rouge will work with the mayor's office and an oversight committee, which councilwoman Carolyn Coleman says she will be part of.

"Think about that, which is happening at LSU there and then the River Center. Many will ask you, doing all that work over there with the arena. What about the River Center, and so this is the beginning of making that happen," Coleman said.

President and CEO of Visit Baton Rouge Jill Kidder says they will be going out for RFP's pertaining to day-to-day operations.

"We'll be going out for a request for proposals to what we call an interim, also contractual management group to do the day-to-day operations of the center," Kidder said.

Kidder says this will allow Visit Baton Rouge to work closely with whichever organization comes in, in order to attract the type of events that contribute to the economic impact.

"We really want to work on more conventions, and more events that bring hotel revenue, retail sales, and restaurant sales into our community," Kidder said.

Visit Baton Rouge is expected to take over the interim management duties for the River Center on Jan. 1.