But that's exactly what will be happening, with the Grand Elixxa Hotel snapped up by Gunida Gunyah Aboriginal Corporation.

It's hard to imagine the pub being anything else, but it's set to undergo a full renovation from top to bottom, with the first stage starting Wednesday.

Gunida Gunyah's chief executive officer Jane Bender says stage one will involve the fit-out of the ground floor, and the ideal finishing date for this is early 2021.

"The main bar areas will be turned into individual offices, private interview rooms, disabled toilets, conference rooms," she told the NVI.

"There'll also be new bathrooms, an upgraded commercial kitchen, and a ramp out the front to the entry."

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Ms Bender said the relocation from the Farrar Road facility was for more inclusiveness and accessibility "to better support the local Aboriginal community and build our capacity to service the wider community".

"The move will improve our physical presence in the community and we hope that this will enable our corporation to strengthen relationships with existing services," she said.

"We will be operating as a community services and housing hub delivering a number of valuable services and meaningful programs, including social, transitional, and crisis accommodation and supported living programs.

"We will continue our current services including Warranggal Dhiyan Justice Support and advocacy, client case management, client transport, information, referrals and links to other services, supported playgroup, elder's social groups and programs targeted at youth at risk."

There will be new services, too, such as disability support and advocacy, domestic and family violence support, youth social enterprise and arts, language and cultural programs.

Stage two will see the upstairs rooms - which are currently in a state of disrepair - redone for the organisation's new transitional housing program.

This will be further down the track once everything on the bottom floor is complete.

Ms Bender said local contractors were being engaged through the whole process, with local building, carpeting and flooring, electrical and air conditioning companies all on board.

"For stage two ... we work with a couple of builders in town, and we've got one sort of major building contractor that we use and we're hoping we can use him for upstairs if he has the capacity for that," she said.