A QUIET $43 MILLION
This story was originally published in the May 17, 2025 Issue.
It’s usually tough to quietly make plans to build a huge, $43.5 million industrial park on the edge of Bishop featuring roughly 100,000 square feet of offices, another 100,000 square feet of warehouses and mechanical shops, sprawling outdoor equipment yards holding everything from electric cars to dump trucks and excavators to power poles. Plus a “water feature” and nearly 44,000 square feet of landscaped open space.
But the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has been quietly putting together just such a plan for its Bishop Training Facility and Construction Yard since October of 2023. The first phase of the project will include offices and training facilities for the Power side of LADWP, with phase two consisting of a new construction yard, shops and construction offices for the Water folks.
The big plan had its public unveiling on Monday, May 12 at the Bishop City Council meeting. (City staff presented a quick overview since no one from LADWP was at the meeting.) The council accepted an initial $88,000 payment from LADWP the city will use to hire consultants to double check LADWP’s state Environmental Impact Report and other aspects of the ongoing environmental reviews.
The sprawling project is located north of Wye Road, directly east of Brown’s Supply and north of Von’s and the Caltrans maintenance facility. The project is on vacant LADWP land and will occupy land on both sides of the Bishop Canal (the aforementioned “water feature”).
“The facilities will offer workforce development resources (and) provide indoor and outdoor spaces for the maintenance of typical LADWP infrastructure,” according to LADWP.
Don’t expect to see dirt flying on site in the near future. Construction of the $18 million Training Facility is slated to start in July of 2026 and be completed in a year. It will take four more years to wrap up CEQA, planning and design before construction begins in October of 2029 on the Construction Yard and should be completed in October of 2032. The current estimate for that work is estimated at $25.5 million today.
The big question at the council meeting, and in many residents’ minds, is what will happen to LADWP’s extensive operations and administrative complex in Bishop. Currently, LADWP’s equipment yards, warehouses, parking areas, maintenance and construction shops, and offices consume roughly six square blocks of land on the southwest corner of Bishop. That could become prime land for development of some sort if it is completely vacated.
The council strongly suggested LADWP should vacate at least the large, outdoor equipment, vehicle and storage yards and do whatever is necessary to open them up to some sort of housing projects or development. That would fill a need for additional housing in town while eliminating a large portion of the current industrial/warehouse/storage yard feel in that part of town.
However, the official word from LADWP on the future of that real estate and some of the buildings currently in place is, “This has not yet been determined,” according to Jessica Johnson, LADWP spokesperson, in an email responding to The Sheet’s questions about the project.
Besides the outdoor yards, the LADWP complex contains a jumbled assortment of shops and buildings from various eras, with some definitely showing their age. When asked if those older (and somewhat creaky) buildings would be demolished once empty, Johnson responded with “This has not been determined.” The same response came when asked if there were any specific plans for several square blocks of equipment yards once they are vacated sometime in the 2030s.
Not everything at the current LADWP site will be abandoned, however, even after completion of the new Training Facility and the Construction Yard. Johnson said, “We are not relocating the construction yard in Bishop to the new facility,” so it will “remain in use for the construction groups.” Plus, the administrative offices and other assorted buildings housing the LADWP water system and aqueduct operations “will remain in the current location on Mandich Street,” she said.
Johnson cited numerous benefits the new facilities will deliver to the utility and the community.
The Power side of Water and Power is generally overlooked, thanks to the drama from the Water folks. The new training facility will put a charge into the Power group (I’m sorry, couldn’t resist, lucky this didn’t appear sooner). The Power system does not have a training facility in the Owens Valley, Johnson noted, so training for current or newly hired power employees means they have to travel to the LADWP Truesdale Training Center in LA County. Some of that training can last months if not longer, she said. The new Bishop facility will make it easier to train new employees and “will also create a local pool of candidates” and employees on the power side.
The Training Facility will include a training building and a separate administrative building, for a total of 59,000 square foot of office space. That will include a large “assembly room” and classrooms that the public can use. A 19,000 square foot parking garage and outdoor parking and charging stations are planned. A large portion of the center (150,000 square feet) will be devoted to “outdoor training.”
As for the Water and Aqueduct group, “LADWP Water System construction (facilities) are outdated and undersized for the staffing and equipment needed for operations and maintenance,” Johnson said. The new facility will allow for materials and equipment storage and “Organize construction shops and staffing for more efficient operations.”
And there are quite a few construction shops. The layout of the new Construction Yard shows buildings holding eight separate shops: welding, painting, carpenters, water pumps, hydro, chemical, survey and Aqueduct and Reservoir Keepers (which is still the best job title ever created). There will also be a large mechanics’ shop (30,000 square feet), fueling and other vehicle fleet and maintenance operations. About 45,000 square feet of warehouse space in several buildings is planned, along with 50,000 square feet of office and training space in the main administration building.
Johnson said the new Bishop facilities will not prompt any changes to the LADWP shops and offices in Independence and Lone Pine.
The City of Bishop gets the honor of approving all the paperwork involved and will be rezoning the parcels for the new LADWP facilities, issuing building permits, and conducting inspections for compliance with state and local codes, Johnson said.
Jon Klusmire of Bishop hopes there is something more interesting to write about in 2032 then the ceremonial planting of drought resistant shrubbery at the new LADWP construction yard.
