The new owners of the Normanby plan to attract families and locals back to the historic hotel

The historic Normanby Hotel will undergo a $2 million facelift, and the new owners wanting to attract a different type of clientele when it reopens.

An artist impression of the new beer garden planned for the Normanby Hotel which has closed while it undergoes a $2 million revamp. Pic: BSPN Architects

The new owners of the historic Normanby Hotel have promised there will never again be boozy Sunday sessions or wild car park parties.

The Pelathon Management Group has taken over the pub on a two-year lease, with the option of purchasing the freehold.

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Their focus will be to transform the heritage-listed hotel into a family-friendly destination on the back of a $2 million makeover when it reopens in a few months.

There are also plans for a craft brewery.

The Normanby’s notorious reputation stems from earlier this decade, when its long weekend car park parties and Sunday sessions aggravated locals with their noise, litter and patrons urinating in the street.

Pelathon Management Group’s managing director Jaz Mooney said he knew the battle to win the trust of locals wouldn’t be easy, but vowed the hotel would be a venue for everyone.

“The local residents are the key to this pub… we want them to use this as their home, office and playground,” he said.

“There will be no car park parties and no big events. We want this to be a suburban and family-friendly hotel.”

An artist’s impression of the new beer garden planned for the Normanby Hotel which has closed while it undergoes a $2 million revamp. Pic: BSPN Architects

The Winchester Group, headed by director Shaun Dunleavy, will oversee the project and is working with BSPN Architecture whose portfolio includes the Story Bridge Hotel, The Loft at West End, and Brisbane’s Treasury Casino.

Mr Dunleavy led the team behind the $10 million upgrade of the Regatta Hotel in 2012 and Mr Mooney said this design would be “on trend”.

“We think it’s going to roughly cost about two million and we will manage it with an interior design that will be on trend with what is currently happening in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.”

The vision includes transforming the beer garden and returning the poker machines to the area now occupied by Bovine restaurant.

There will also be, in time, an on-site craft brewery, while the disused office space on the first floor overlooking Musgrave Rd will be converted into private function rooms.

Mr Mooney said the group had some 14 hotels under its management, and the goal was for the Normanby to have a similar vibe to their CBD venue Grand Central Hotel.

“We want it to have the same feel as Grand Central which is also historic and known for its great food and service,” Mr Mooney said.

“The beer garden will change and I think people will immediately think it’s a different venue when they see how the beer garden changes.”

Jaz Mooney (left), managing director of Pelathon Management Group which has bought the lease, with CBRE Hotels director Paul Fraser (centre) and Winchester Group director Shaun Dunleavy, whose company will oversee the refurbishment of the Normanby Hotel. Picture: Darren Cartwright

It took four months for the Pelathon Management Group to come to an arrangement to take over the lease, but it was far from the first to show an interest.

The venue was on the market for 14 months before a deal was clinched, said CBRE Hotels’ director Paul Fraser.

He said the enormity of the hotel, which has three levels, 35 gaming machines, dual frontage and sits on a 4,162 metre site, overwhelmed some parties.

“We had about eight to 10 serious investor’s people and loved the pub but they struggled to understand how they would reinvent it. That was the biggest stumbling block,” Mr Fraser said.

“Everyone would move the gaming room, reinvent the beer garden and upstairs they’re thinking function rooms and move the bar.

“But when they went to the first level I had lost them because it’s massive and disused offices and people looked at it and it was as though it was too big for them to comprehend.”