McNamee’s D4 offices will bring in the dough

RONAN McNamee, the co-founder of Cuisine de France, is having quite the clear-out of his property portfolio. The parbaked bread millionaire this month put his so-called Grafton Street Collection of properties on the market for €40m. The properties took several years to assemble and no doubt will attract plenty of interest given that Grafton Street and its surrounds are once again in vogue with international retailers.

I note that McNamee, who sold Cuisine de France to IAWS for over €50m, is also flogging the headquarters of his business ECA Capital. The Victorian building on Clyde Road, Dublin 4, is in the heart of the embassy belt. Agents Savills suggest it would be ‘ideal’ for a headquarters office or plush private residence, subject to planning.

Although no guide price was offered, a neighbouring house on the road sold last year for close to €3m.

It has been a mixed year for McNamee, whose interests now include gluten-free bread company BFree. Already stocked by supermarket giants Waitrose and Tesco in the UK, the company is now making inroads into the US. It has at least one celebrity fan — actress Rooney Mara raved about the range after sampling it while filming Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture in Ireland.

While that business is clearly on a roll, his tax matters have been more troublesome. In June of this year, the Supreme Court dismissed his challenge to the validity of Revenue’s opinion in relation to a type of tax avoidance scheme. This cleared the way for the taxman to pursue 26 high-net-worth individuals, including McNamee.

He may have to pay Revenue several million euro, but after the property sales, dough is unlikely to be a problem.