When Gary Neville agreed that the squatters who had moved into the old Manchester Stock Exchange, which he and Ryan Giggs are developing into a boutique hotel, could stay for the winter, he probably didn’t think it would become a news story that would go around the world. He wasn’t keen for it to become public in the first place; it was Greater Manchester police who broke the news on Twitter, prompting Neville to rage: “Why are you tweeting it you idiots?” after which the police deleted the tweet.
The move was widely acclaimed and seen as a complete contrast to what most businessmen would have done when faced with squatters. But the story was also another reminder of the growing influence of Neville and Giggs, not only as a force and brand in football, but also in changing the face of Manchester and Salford. Both members of the so-called class of 92 generation of local footballers who brought unprecedented success to Manchester United, Giggs and (particularly) Neville are now extending their influence way beyond the football pitch.
“Gary Neville has turned himself into a highly regarded, articulate and fair-minded football pundit, not shy of controversy, and he is rapidly building the same reputation in the world of property,” says Phil Griffin, who has been writing about the changing face of Manchester since the days when architects still had drawing boards, and is co-author of the brilliant Manchester, the best book in modern times about the changing face of the city.
Nowhere is the ambition and business nous of Neville and Giggs more in evidence than across the forecourt of United’s Old Trafford stadium, where the pair opened Hotel Football in March this year.
It’s not the most elegant building viewed from the outside, due to odd shape of the site and a strange colour scheme, but inside they’ve done a hugely impressive job. Neville and Giggs are fully aware of the dual pulling power of United and their own brand; before it opened its doors Hotel Football was already taking large block bookings from United supporters’ clubs in Scandinavia and further afield for the year ahead.
Not only for the 133 bedrooms, but for pre- and post-match packages, the most expensive of which include a post-match analysis with one of the class of 92 (after some matches Giggs himself will stroll across from the dressing room to give his thoughts). The Old Trafford Supporters’ Club, the cavernous bar in the basement of the hotel, holds 1,000 people and is rammed for several hours before and after each home game. United appealed against the planning permission for Hotel Football, but lost and are now losing many thousands of pounds of potential match day revenue at every home game. You won’t find Hotel Football mentioned in the club programme or official magazine and the club has banned employees from visiting (although it can hardly ban Giggs, United’s assistant manager).
Neville has been the driving force. Growing up in late 1980s and early 1990s Manchester, he and Giggs watched their home city go through a huge generational change, first with the wave of the acid-house revolution, then wholesale regeneration of the city centre in the wake of the IRA bombing in 1996. They are now significant players in the next phase of the city’s modern history.
Neville built his first house in his early 20s and later brought in architect Ken Shuttleworth, formerly of Sir Norman Foster’s outfit, and largely responsible for the London “Gherkin”, to design an ecological house for him on moors above Bolton. The house never happened, but Neville was bitten by the architectural and development bug. Apart from his projects with Giggs, he’s also director of Manchester-based development and sustainable design consultancy Zerum, and was billed as one of the “headliners” of Mipim, the huge global property event in the south of France, when he appeared there last year, promoting Manchester alongside Sir Howard Bernstein. Bernstein and Sir Richard Leese, chief executive and leader of Manchester city council respectively, may both be City fans, but they see the benefit of having Neville and Giggs onside in the development of the city.
Given the astronomical turnover at both Manchester clubs, including annual wage bills alone of more than £200m each, it can only please the council to have two high-profile former players setting an example by investing their money back in to the city, instead of somewhere like Dubai. “Nobody saw this play coming,” says Griffin, “and while the football analogies are far too easy to reach for, it is clear this combination, of city, global investors and seriously intentioned developers is bringing something fresh to Manchester. Neville and Giggs are clearly building a formidable team, with solid forwards and backers.
“The joke, although it’s wearing slightly thin now, is that for City fan Bernstein to cross Albert Square to do anything other than aim a late kick at the legs of either of them, must be a wrench.”
In a sense, Neville and Giggs are only following the late George Best’s example. To paraphrase John Lennon, before anyone did anything, Best did everything. When Coronation Street was still black and white, before Giggs and Neville were born, Best was redefining the role of celebrity footballer by opening boutiques and nightclubs in the city. “George Best invested in Manchester and gave the city its first youthful glamour and identity,” says Griffin, “and Neville and Giggs are two of his beneficiaries, so it’s great to see them following in his footsteps.”
Apart from Hotel Football, the other development projects Neville and Giggs are involved in are non-football-related and Neville talks expansively and passionately about the development of the city. Their next scheme, on which they are working closely with the city council, is the £200m redevelopment of the Jacksons Row and Bootle Street area of the city centre, known as St Michael’s, which includes the now closed Bootle Street police station. This used to be where Best’s old club Slack Alice was located. “Nothing uncommon for a footballer to retire and buy a pub,” says Griffin. “But to buy a pub and several streets and city blocks that surround it, is significantly different enough to merit a closer look.”
Neville and Giggs have big plans for a five-star hotel, leisure and commercial spaces. And while Osborne and Cameron were wooing the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, last week, Neville and Giggs have their own major investors from the far east, with the new project being backed by Singapore-based Rowsley, including the billionaire investor Peter Lim. “As developers, Neville and Giggs have moved through the lower leagues pretty swiftly,” says Griffin, “and clearly have their sights set on the Champions League.”
This week, the focus on the class of 92 moves to another of their new projects, Salford City. Five of them (the Neville brothers, Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt) bought the non-league club 18 months ago with the long-term intention of taking it into the Football League. The BBC spent last season following them around for the documentary series Class of 92: Out of Their League (which starts on Thursday). Chatting to Giggs, Scholes and Butt after a preview screening at Manchester’s HOME arts venue recently, they all confirmed it was another of Gary Neville’s decisions.
“As with most of the ideas we’re involved with,” says Giggs, “it comes from Gary.”
Even Neville’s wife calls him a control freak. “She says I’m a control freak,” he says. “but it’s more like I just want to know what’s going on.”
But the series also displays Neville’s negotiational nous again. Not long ago, Peter Lim nearly bought Liverpool FC for £320m. During the course of the series Neville, never a man to hide his dislike of Liverpool in his playing days, somehow convinces Lim to buy half of Salford City from him instead. Which is some doing.
Giggs still lives in Worsley, near where he grew up (albeit in a mansion he had built) and the restaurant called George’s he opened with two old schoolmates a couple of years ago. You wonder, if he was left to his own devices, he might have been happy to settle for that, if there wasn’t the huge drive of his “busy” pal Neville behind him. “I’ve been involved with Gary in various business projects, so I know what he’s like,” Giggs says. “One day people will forget he was a football player, because he’s so business-minded and sharp … he wants to know everything. “
Class of 92: Out of Their League begins on Thursday, 9pm, BBC1
