Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville is to let squatters stay for the winter in the former stock exchange building, which will be turned into a boutique hotel in February.
The Manchester Angels housing activist group moved in on Sunday and plan to turn the currently uninhabited building into a one-stop shop for local homeless people by providing them with a roof over their heads, hot food, health checkups, advice, workshops and clean clothes.
Wesley Hall, a human rights activist, said he spoke to Neville on the phone and was told the group could stay until February when building work will start.
Hall has promised Neville that the Angels will leave the building in 'as good if not a better state than we found it in' and that he is planning to fit smoke alarms and locks on the doors, as well as drawing up rotas for cleaning, cooking and door security.
The Grade II-listed Norfolk Street site will be turned into a 35-bed hotel with a basement gym and spa, roof-top private members’ terrace and ground floor restaurant and bar.