Powerball Winner Buys Up Altadena Lots

A Powerball winner is using his winnings to help rebuild his hometown of Altadena.

Edwin Castro, who bought a record $2 billion Powerball lottery ticket at a gas station in 2022, is one of the biggest buyers of lots in Altadena after January’s deadly Eaton fire, The Wall Street Journal reported. The 33-year-old has spent $10 million to buy up 15 lots so far.

Many Altadena residents have grown fearful of a neighborhood takeover by wealthy investors as many struggle to get back on their feet. A petition to stop investors from buying Altadena lots, for example, has collected almost 1,500 signatures.

Castro hopes to act as a benevolent force in the community in which he grew up.

“This is for a family that wants to move in,” Castro told the Journal while looking at burned lots. “Those are the people that need to be looked out for right now.”

Castro is focused on rebuilding single-family homes for local families rather than developers or landlords. The lottery winner has already submitted plans for his first two houses, which would be Craftsman-style designs with an accessory dwelling unit attached. He expects to break ground once county permits are cleared; his plans for a broader reconstruction could take a decade.

Castro isn’t looking to make out like a bandit.

“The profit margin doesn’t need to be egregious,” he told the Journal. “But I’m not building these homes just to give them away.”

“Many people who were affected by the fires in Altadena cannot or do not want to rebuild and aspire to move on and start elsewhere,” Edwin Castro and his brother Jesse, with whom he runs Black Lion Properties, said in a statement. “These purchases will help some of them, while keeping ownership of the property local.”

Castro himself bought a $25.5 million estate in the Hollywood Hills in 2023.

Some locals, such as Altadena native Joel Bryant, are happy to see Castro stepping in while other investors circle the neighborhood. “I feel better about him than anybody else because he’s from the area,” Bryant said.

Other residents, however, aren’t as convinced.

“He’s just another person trying to get some profit,” Seriina Covarrubias, whose home suffered severe smoke damage but was still standing after the fires, said.

Ultimately, Castro hopes to restore as much of the Altadena he knew and loved as possible. “I want it to feel like the old neighborhood,” he said. “Like if you put all those houses pre-fire in a time bubble.”

— Chris Malone Méndez