WORK is now underway to transform the site of a controversial town centre nightclub into an all-you-can-eat Brazilian restaurant and cocktail bar.

Whispers Sports Bar on Regent Street closed last year after a patron was stabbed among other issues, and the venue lost its licence.

The site has remained closed since, but this week construction work began to strip down the building in preparation for its reopening as Estabulo Rodizio Bar and Grill.

New owner Zac Issak, who comes from Wakefield, hopes to have the renovation completed by September, with the building being gutted before undergoing a complete transformation.

Zac, 41, said: “We have been planning to come to Barnsley for a long time.

“It’s a beautiful site on the right side of town, it just needs a bit of work.

“Once you put some nice places in an area you clean it up and give it a new life, but if you don’t give it a chance, nothing changes.”

Zac said he bought the premises from previous owner Chris Palmer two weeks ago.

He owns five other restaurants in the Estabulo chain, which are in Harrogate, Wakefield, Beverley and two in Leeds.

The restaurant will follow the theme of Zac’s other restaurants, consisting of a large dining area and cocktail bar with outside seating, and a planned function room on the top floor.