{"id":521680,"date":"2026-06-27T19:55:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T19:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/521680\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T19:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T19:55:27","slug":"property-developer-dean-mckillen-adds-upmarket-grocery-store-to-los-angeles-interests-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/521680\/","title":{"rendered":"Property developer Dean McKillen adds upmarket grocery store to Los Angeles interests \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dean McKillen<\/a>, a son of Belfast-born property tycoon Paddy McKillen, has launched a new upmarket grocery chain in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

The property developer best known for selling homes to Beyonc\u00e9 and Calvin Klein<\/a> has a string of hospitality sector interests in the LA dining scene, including Laurel Grill and Ysabel.<\/p>\n

McKillen<\/a> and business partner Phil Howard have now moved into the grocery sector with a new location called Laurel Supply on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. <\/p>\n

The 1,500sq m shop, which opened in recent weeks, is located close to Laurel Hardware, a restaurant opened in 2012 by the pair on the same street.<\/p>\n

Property records show McKillen and Howard have controlled the building housing the new grocer since the late 2010s. It was constructed in the 1940s and was previously home to the Ritts Company Furniture and a dot-com era company called Hollywood Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n

Laurel Supply has launched in an area of Los Angeles that is home to many Hollywood actors, with upmarket, organic products on its shelves. <\/p>\n

The business is one of many in the US looking to capitalise on the high-end grocery trend, including Whole Foods Market and Erewhon.<\/p>\n

\"\"Has the Irish building sector got themselves hooked on Government subsidies?<\/p>\n

Private equity-backed health store Erewhon has expanded rapidly from being one family-owned store in 2011 into a network of 13 locations. A recent report by Fast Company estimated the company\u2019s 10 stores made $171.4 million (\u20ac150.48 million) profit in 2023.<\/p>\n

Products sold in Laurel Supply include organic yoghurt-covered raisins for \u20ac38 per kg ($20 per pound), organic chicken for \u20ac44.58 per kg and fresh line-caught fish for \u20ac56 per kg, according to news outlet SFGate. <\/p>\n

Other items include bags of tortilla chips for $17 (\u20ac15), tinned tuna for $44 and a small bottle of Italian spring water has been priced at $6. <\/p>\n

Laurel Supply\u2019s health and beauty section also has a large range of wellness items, including a toothpaste brand called K\u00f6ppen for $16.<\/p>\n

There is also an in-store bakery selling breads made on site, while pizza from a wood-fired oven and sushi can also be purchased on site.<\/p>\n

SFGate\u2019s report on the opening said the grocer also offers some value for money, including a fresh-baked loaf of ciabatta for $6, bananas are 29 cents each and a slice of wood-fired pizza \u201cbig enough to be a quarter of a large pie\u201d is priced at $8.<\/p>\n

Following the launch of the new store, Howard said the opening has been well-received.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both have a passion for retail, and we\u2019re obsessed with travelling to places like Japan to see what sort of food they\u2019re selling,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in West Hollywood for 15 years with the restaurant. The community has been amazing to us, and the city has been amazing to us. We just want to keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKillen has enjoyed significant success in the Los Angeles real estate market in the past decade, typically buying homes for refurbishment<\/a> and then selling them to entertainment A-listers.<\/p>\n

In 2017, he sold a 2,700sq m Bel Air mansion to Beyonc\u00e9 and husband Jay Z for $90 million. Two years previously, US fashion designer Calvin Klein<\/a> paid $25 million for a Hollywood Hills-based mansion that McKillen had bought for $6 million in 2012 and renovated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dean McKillen, a son of Belfast-born property tycoon Paddy McKillen, has launched a new upmarket grocery chain in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,222352,61,60,116,4674],"class_list":["post-521680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dean-mckillen","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-los-angeles","tag-retail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}