Just shy of three years ago, Edwin Castro bought a Powerball ticket worth $2 billion in Altadena, California, a win that brought unexpected good fortune to the owner of the gas station at which he purchased it.
Altadena was cratered by the Eaton Fire in January, and as the Wall Street Journal reports, the 33-year-old Castro has earmarked a share of his winnings to invest in rebuilding. The local is among several developers snapping up fire-damaged properties.
Roughly 10 months after the Los Angeles wildfires tore through neighborhoods, leveling homes and businesses, rebuilding hasn’t been easy for displaced Altadena residents. Between a preponderance of scams and insurance holdups, residents have struggled to resume their lives.
Natural disasters are, above all else, destructive events that traumatically upend lives. As Lāhainā’s post-wildfire rebuilding efforts showed, disasters can afford a silver lining to rebuild with intent — but they routinely attract predatory investors willing to put profits over people.
Castro isn’t a billionaire; he netted $768 million from his November 2022 Powerball win. Based on the Wall Street Journal’s coverage, he doesn’t appear to view investing in the reconstruction of Altadena solely through the lens of profit.
“This is for a family that wants to move in. Those are the people that need to be looked out for right now,” Castro told the Journal during a recent excursion to view some of the lots he purchased after the fire.
Castro, who told the outlet he wanted to become a father “like, yesterday,” said his interest in redeveloping Altadena was “about family.” The neighborhood was home to classical homes like Craftsman bungalows, and Castro expressed a desire to stay true to that history.
“I want it to feel like the old neighborhood. Like if you put all those houses pre-fire in a time bubble,” he explained. Altadena residents spoke to the Journal about development efforts, and many were heartened by Castro’s involvement and interest.
“I feel better about him than anybody else because he’s from the area,” said contractor Joel Bryant. Zaire Calvin, who expressed broader concerns about further displacement of Black Altadena residents, said that a “collaboration with him would be great.”
Not everyone in Altadena was as optimistic. Seriina Covarrubias, whose home was damaged but not destroyed in the fire, said that Castro was “just another person trying to get some profit.”
Castro hasn’t denied that profits are part of his interest in purchasing and developing lots in Altadena, but he anticipated a somewhat modest return on the investment.
“The profit margin doesn’t need to be egregious. But I’m not building these homes just to give them away,” Castro said.
His relatively small buy-in of $10 million for 15 lots in total appeared to back up his assertions that community was a bigger focus for him than cash.
A larger investment, irrespective of returns, would be “too much work,” Castro said.
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