'The biggest risk I've ever taken:' Gary Neville on his huge city centre St Michael's development - and the pressure of spending other people's money
Gary Neville is well known for making his mark on the football pitch for Manchester United and England.
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. As well as 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."In Relentless Developments we have never taken on another project because we want to focus solely on this," Neville added. "We see it as a great responsibility. We always have and we didn't want to become distracted.
"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," Neville said. "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.
"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. "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."
"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.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Gary Neville admits 'huge mistake' in mammoth city centre projectWork on the first phase of the project has already begun
Read more »
Gary Neville admits 'huge mistakes' with £400m Manchester development plans - including tearing down iconic pubGary Neville has admitted to making 'huge mistakes' with his \u00a3400m development plans in Manchester city centre.
Read more »
Gary Neville's massive 41-storey tower that will be part of a 'defining project'Gary Neville's massive 41-storey tower that will be part of a 'defining project' for the city centre
Read more »
Gary Neville says he doesn’t see anything wrong with Middle East money in football or business🗣️ Gary Neville tells theipaper he supports an independent regulator in football, but the sport should not seek to stop wealthy investors from overseas taking over clubs because “that horse has bolted, we need to accept that” 🔗 Read more:
Read more »
Gary Lineker enjoys Wimbledon day out with stepdaughter Ella, 20, in rare snapsPresenter and former footballer Gary Lineker was spotted in the crowd at Wimbledon 2023, alongside his stepdaughter Ella, 20, who is the daughter of his second ex-wife Danielle Bux
Read more »
Wham's Andrew Ridgeley opens up about relationship with George Michael after the band endedThe musician pays tribute to his late friend and their Wham! legacy.
Read more »