$52 million lottery winner wants to rebuild historic black community

Lottery winner Miguel Pilgram is creating headlines again after winning a $52 million jackpot using “quick numbers” back in 2010, this time around for his interest in investing some of his jackpot winnings into the local black community of Sistrunk known as the “historical heartbeat of Fort Lauderdale’s oldest black community.”

“I was raised in a similar environment,” Pilgram said. “There is a need, and in my mind, an obligation, to invest there.”

With plans to roll out a New York Subs and Wings restaurant with a Memphis Blues club upstairs on one side of Sistrunk Blvd., Pilgram’s company, The Pilgram Group, is planning a retail complex with a bank, a Jamba Juice, and other ground floor shops with a second floor performing arts center.

“Do you know how impactful that is for a child from any of these areas, who is like me, to come out and see people actually painting in the window, or performing on a saxophone?” Pilgram said. “That creates a fire under most children. Now they say, wow, anything out there that’s creative, I can be. Whatever artist I want to be, I can be.”

Amazing. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for this historic section of Fort Lauderdale.