New owner to give Normanby Hotel a $3.5m revamp
The new owner of Brisbane’s Normanby Hotel has abandoned plans to build a 15-storey complex around the heritage-listed pub.
Irishman Jaz Cooney is instead spending $3.5 million on revamping the pub, turning the upstairs rooms into small function rooms, and redeveloping the downstairs TAB into a sports lounge.
The new look hotel is expected to be unveiled before the end of the year.
Cooney acquired the Normanby five months ago for $11 million, inheriting the previous owners failed plans to build the 15-storey development around the hotel.
After previously restoring the Grand Central Hotel at Central Station, Cooney said "Australia's heritage has to be protected”.
"I'm not really a developer. I'm more of a publican than a developer," he told the Brisbane Times.
Sheridan Randall, 6th November 2019
