Gary Neville has opened up about his journey to get his £400m St Michael's scheme off the ground.
Speaking exclusively to BusinessLive, the footballer-turned-businessman has detailed in depth why it means so much to him to create the landmark development in Manchester city centre
He has also revealed how his career with Manchester United inspired him to start on the journey 15 years ago.
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In an interview to mark the launch of the St Michael's scheme, Mr Neville also addressed the criticism he has received about the landmark development not featuring any affordable housing and whether he ever thought about giving up on his dream.
"It's definitely a Manchester United thing, a Sir Alex Ferguson thing, that we never, ever recognise success properly", he said. "Maybe you celebrate on the day and you have a smile but then you're always getting on with stuff and meeting people and then you're off again.
"There are still some hard yards to run on this project but it is a big day. To be a year out from completing on No 1. St Michael's and to be going on site in within the next two months on the tower is a momentous occasion.
"We've had some big challenges and the actual product we're trying to deliver is difficult and that's why there's not a lot of it in the city.
"We know that we're delivering something that's hard but also we've had a global recession, the pandemic and the planning challenges which I take responsibility for and which cost us two or three years as well.
"It's been hard along the way but we got there and I've always believed in this site and this project.
The project is certainly not a small undertaking. When complete, the £150m No 1 St Michael's will comprise nine floors of office space while global restaurant brand Chotto Matte will occupy the rooftop with two food and beverage outlets situated on the ground floor.
The £250m phase two is a 41-storey tower which will be home to a 162-bed, five-star international hotel brand as well as 217 residences and an additional 75,000 sq ft of office space.
The development will also incorporate a public square which will see the historic Sir Ralph Abercromby pub retained following a substantial refurbishment.
As well as Mr Neville's Relentless Developments, the scheme is being brought forward by US investment giant KKR and Salboy, the Salford developer co-founder by Fred Done, of Betfred fame. Manchester City Council is also a key stakeholder.
The scheme is expected bring £120m investment to the city and create more than 3,000 jobs.
On the size of the project and the potential risks, Mr Neville said: "This is a £400m project. I don't have £400m, nothing like that. So to deliver a project where you are essentially investing with partners who are putting the money in, this is the biggest thing I've ever done.
"In Relentless Developments we have never taken on another project because we want to focus solely on this. We see it as a great responsibility. We always have and we didn't want to become distracted.
"We've always had a bump in the road along the way whether it was something out of our control or something that we could have done a little bit better. But we're still here; we're persistent, dedicated, we love our city and it's definitely the biggest risk I've ever taken.
"It's a natural progression for me from building my first house at the age of 22 and then doing five barn conversions and then ten. I then moved on to do Hotel Football and then refurbishing a Grade II-listed building in the Stock Exchange and then this."
But it's not been a completely smooth journey since moving from the football pitch and into the boardroom.
Some ventures have failed, including two Café Football sites in London and Manchester which closed in quick succession in 2019.
Responding to that, Mr Neville said: "Every business I've been a part of has been a start-up. We've had eight of them and you do along the way hit obstacles and you make mistakes.
"That's happened in the Stock Exchange Hotel in the last week when we closed the restaurant. Food and beverage is tough and we don't do it anymore because we don't do it well. We have to accept that but we do hotels really well."
All of Mr Neville's post-football ventures have been started from the ground up which, alongside his more prominent role as a TV pundit, has kept him busy since hanging up his boots.
Asked whether he ever thought about packing it all in and enjoying an easier life, he said: "You have moments when you think 'bloody hell this is hard'. You have to have persistence, belief and partners who are willing to drive through the mud with you. There's no doubt about that.
"The CEO of Relentless Developments, Anthony Kilbride, has been with us since day one. He didn't have to stay this whole time but I feel like we've created an environment and have projects that mean a lot to people and that they're passionate about.
"Start-ups are bloody hard, they really are. I don't know why I keep on investing in starting up businesses because it's hard enough investing in a business that's already on the track and running and have already gone through the pain at the beginning.
"But we want to create something from scratch and have our spirit running through it.
"We've never lost faith in it but there have been times which have been very tough."
Mr Neville is well known for making his mark on the football pitch for Manchester United and England.
When the St Michael's development is complete, he will have made a lasting mark on the landscape of his home city.
"I finished my football career at the age of 35 with the ambition to not be known as an ex-Manchester United football player and for the next 30 years to be more memorable than the first 30 years of my life", he said. "It's pretty impossible as I achieved my dreams and played for the club that I love.
"But for St Michael's, when it's built, I don't want people to walk into the city and think that's Neville's building. But I do feel proud of this city and of its people.
"People in Manchester, we get things done. There is a real 'go up and get them' attitude and a spirit and Manchester's people are its strongest component.
"The fact that I can contribute to the city in a small way is amazing for me. I do feel really proud.
"I live in the city centre now, have done for four to five years, and I really love it here. I'm committed to Salford, Trafford, Bury, Bolton and to Manchester. This is where I want to invest my money, time and effort."
Of all the projects for a former footballer to take on, a £400m city centre developments that has come with a whole host of unexpected complications and set backs might not be most people's first thoughts.
But in speaking to Mr Neville you get a sense of his ambition and passion for the project that helped him transition from a Premier League star to his post-playing days.
"When we started the project 15 years ago you didn't get world class hospitality bleeding into commercial or residential buildings", he said.
"That has changed and there's no doubt now that there have been some brilliant developments that have changed that.
"Manchester only has one five-star hotel and it's always blown my mind. I've always thought that, and this is the third-best city in the city, we need a variety in each sector.
"People might say that's really snobbish, particularly from someone who's a Labour Party member. But I feel quite disappointed that's the case.
"This project was born out of my football experiences. I used to travel around the world with United and stay in the best hotels in all of the best cities in the world that we used to play in.
"I used to come back to Manchester and think 'why have we not got these hotels?' and it used to bug me that people thought of Manchester as just a regional city.
"I thought I would change that and that's where this has all come from."
Over the years critics have hit out at the St Michael's scheme, and Gary Neville in particular, for not including any affordable housing in the project.
They argue that it's what the city needs most of all and that the scheme is not addressing Manchester's issues.
Asked whether he gets annoyed at the criticism, he said: "It would annoy me if we weren't making a significant affordable housing contribution into the millions. We're making a huge affordable housing contribution on this site and to be fair we want to do it.
"What has always been levelled at me is 'how can you build a five-star hotel when we need affordable housing' as if I have the answer to the shortage.
"The real problem is the central government policies around affordable and social housing and not really creating the environment to build houses. They're not interested and they've not built enough houses.
"There are real issues in certain areas around land and construction costs making projects too expensive.
"It's a really simple equation and I've not got the answer to that. I would love to build affordable housing all over the Greater Manchester boroughs.
"But with this particular site, when you think of the land costs for example, we have to sell the apartments at a certain level and charge a certain room rate otherwise we would lose hundreds of millions of pounds.
"I have never shied away from the fact that Greater Manchester has got issues, as most cities have, in two areas - high quality product and affordable product.
"We feel that on the St Michaels' site it is absolutely primed for a high quality product. I accept that affordable housing is a problem and we need to work together to deliver that but central government needs to bring us the answers. It's a local problem but it's mainly a central government problem.
It's unsurprising to note that Mr Neville is already thinking about what his next project will be once the St Michael's scheme is complete.
"In development we'd like to do something along the lines of what we've achieved here with St Michael's", he said.
"I wouldn't rule out doing more commercial developments but I think residential and hotels are where the ambition started.
"It could be other buildings that we feel like we want to create something in that we like.
"We're not going to go and do another 15 to 20 developments. We're a boutique developer and one or two is the most we would do at once.
"I don't want a development team of 40 people, be in different cities and be stretched to a point where our team isn't tight.
"There's about ten of us in the office and we have a great team spirit."
On whether the success of the St Michael's development partly makes up for the feeling of City winning the treble at the end of last season, Mr Neville said: "I'd keep the spades out of the ground if it took their treble away! I can be bought when it comes to things like that!
"When City or Liverpool win trophies or even just regular matches, the fighting, battling young Gary Neville comes back in. But the problem for me is that I can't do anything about it anymore.
"I made a small contribution to Manchester United's success in the time I was there. I'm proud that Liverpool and City never won the league when I was at United.
"It was important to us that our direct rivals locally didn't win things. There has been a change in dynamic in these last ten years.
"To achieve the treble you have to be flawless and City were that last season."
