Nearly a year after wildfires tore through Altadena, California, Powerball winner Edwin Castro has emerged as one of the biggest buyers of burned-out lots in his hometown, spending $10 million on 15 properties with plans to build single-family homes. Castro, who won a record $2 billion Powerball jackpot in 2022, says his goal is to help families put down roots in Altadena, though he is clear that the effort is not charity, just business with what he calls a "reasonable" profit margin, the Wall Street Journal reports. "The profit margin doesn't need to be egregious," he says. "But I'm not building these homes just to give them away."
The influx of investors, including Castro, has sparked unease in the tight-knit community, where residents fear the loss of Altadena's small-town character and worry about gentrification and densification, the Journal reports. A petition aimed at blocking outsider purchases has gathered nearly 1,500 signatures, with local groups warning of a "second wave of disaster" following the fire. Concerns are heightened by new California laws that make it easier to build multi-unit housing in formerly single-family neighborhoods. The rebuilding effort comes as Altadena, once a haven for Black homeowners and still more diverse than much of the LA area, faces mounting pressures from rising home values and the risk of further displacement.
Castro, who spent his early years in a middle-class Altadena family and has kept close ties to the area, says he wants to rebuild with the old neighborhood's spirit in mind. He plans to live on two of the lots, imagining a home filled with quirky features, and emphasizes selling only to families, not to investors seeking rentals. Castro, 33, was living in a room he rented from a family in Altadena and working as an architecture consultant when he won the jackpot. Despite skepticism from some locals who see him as just another profit-seeker, others are cautiously optimistic due to his roots in the community. "I feel better about him than anybody else because he's from the area," says contractor Joel Bryant.
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"Many people who were affected by the fires in Altadena cannot or do not want to rebuild and aspire to move on and start over elsewhere," a spokesperson for Castro said, per KGW. "These purchases will help some of them, while keeping ownership of the property local." A $4 million home Castro bought for his parents in Altadena suffered smoke damage in the Eaton Fire—and his $3.8 million Malibu mansion, one of several high-end properties he owns in the LA area, was destroyed in the Palisades Fire. The fires destroyed around 9,000 structures in Altadena, but the gas station where Castro bought the winning ticket survived untouched.
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