Pacific Palisades is rebuilding fast.
But investors buying lots and building spec homes need to watch another bottleneck: power.
You can finish the house and still wait months for LADWP. That means more interest, insurance, taxes, and lost time before you can sell or collect rent.
1,000+ HOMES ARE ALREADY UNDER CONSTRUCTION
As of August 5:
1,750 rebuild applications.
1,196 permits issued.
1,006 homes under construction.
Only 30 certificates of occupancy.
At the same time, LADWP is rebuilding the neighborhood's electrical system. It has already installed 1,825 poles and 334,540 feet of conductor. The permanent system will include a new electrical backbone along Sunset Boulevard and expansion of a key distribution station to 90 megawatts.
More than 1,000 houses are going up while the power system serving them is also being rebuilt.
That's the risk.
SOME FINISHED PROJECTS ARE ALREADY WAITING
One Palisades homeowner told Spectrum News that he requested his electrical connection in August 2025. More than a year later, he said he was still waiting. His house was finished.
Real estate owner Syd Leibovitch told the Palisadian-Post that his newly built Rodeo Realty building sat for roughly three months waiting for permanent power.
I've dealt with this myself. I've waited four to six months for LADWP on one of my own projects. I called constantly trying to get the work scheduled.
The problem wasn't finishing our electrical work. It was getting LADWP manpower to the property.
DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE END
This is where investors can get caught.
LADWP needs to approve things like the meter location, trench, conduit, and underground service. LADWP itself says underground projects can require 6–8 weeks just for an engineer to determine installation costs. I think it can be more like many months if you are not aggressively on top of it.
That's before you necessarily get power.
So don't treat power as something your electrician handles at the end.
BEFORE BUYING A PALISADES LOT OR LAND TO BUILD
Get answers to five questions:
1. Where is my permanent power coming from? Identify the actual pole, transformer, vault, or underground system.
2. How much power will the new house need? Large homes, EV chargers, pools, and multiple HVAC systems can change the load.
3. Has LADWP approved the meter location and service plan?
4. Does LADWP need to upgrade anything outside my property? This is the big one. Your electrician can be finished while LADWP isn't.
5. What happens to my return if power is 90-365 days late? Add months of interest, taxes, insurance, and overhead to your underwriting.
LA NEEDS MORE CREWS
LADWP told Spectrum it has added six Electric Service Representatives to the Palisades and is training more. But with 1,000+ houses already under construction, Los Angeles needs to think bigger.
If LADWP doesn't have enough people, they they need to expand the workforce and look at allowing qualified private contractors to perform appropriate work under LADWP standards and inspections.
THE OPERATOR TAKE
Don't build without knowing the challenges of getting LADWP to power up your building. If you think you build and they will just show up and power you up, I can tell you that this is not going to happen.
Before buying a Palisades lot or land to build, find out when LADWP can actually power the finished property and underwrite the possibility that they're late by up to 6 months.
A 90-day delay isn't just 90 days. It's three more months of interest, taxes, insurance, and overhead with no sale and no rent.
That's real money coming directly out of your return. I know it and it cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The deal isn't finished when construction is finished. It is almost finished when DWP powers you up so that you can start your inspections.
In the City of Los Angeles, power should be part of the underwriting before you buy the dirt.
STAY IN THE CONVERSATION
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