In 2010, Miguel Pilgram was the winner of a $52 million lottery jackpot that enabled him to start his own real estate company, The Pilgram Group. Now he plans to use his winnings to build up properties across south Florida, specifically, a well-known Main Street named #SistrunkBoulevard that was once a wealthy area for African Americans.
Sistrunk was often referred to as the “historical heartbeat of Fort Lauderdale’s oldest black community,” which is located right in the middle of most of the city’s black businesses. The area was named after James Sistrunk.
James was a black physician who helped found the first Black hospital in Broward County in 1938, when segregation laws prohibited Blacks from entering the east side of the tracks where they could be seen and treated in “white” hospitals.
Post-desegregation, the area started to lose its high economic status and became a haven for gun violence, abandoned buildings, and drugs. However, Pilgram recently bought three buildings he plans to make into a jazz lounge, blues lounge, restaurants, and a center for performing arts.
“For me, it’s [about] preserving the community as a whole,” Pilgram told an NBC local affiliate station in South Florida, adding that Sistrunk was once a hub of “success for businessmen.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Along with Pilgram, Edduard Prince, community activist and legal specialist says outside developers are “drooling” to invest in Sistrunk which, like similar cases, will strip the neighborhood of its history and culture while pushing out current residents.
Pilgram’s plan is to do the exact opposite. He wants to develop the location while keeping the culture and its people there.
“I was raised in a similar environment,” he told The Sun-Sentinel. “There is a need, and in my mind, an obligation, to invest there.”
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Now that’s, #ForTheCulture.
