Photo by Gage Vota Sinclair Foundation co-founders Donn, on left, and Kristin Sinclair stand in front of Donn's childhood home which is one of the five properties that the foundation purchased to rebuild.

BELLAIRE — The Sinclair Foundation has announced plans to start construction on five new one-story homes in the Rose Hill neighborhood.

The five homes will be the first new homes built in the neighborhood in the past 50 years.

The homes will run from 32nd Street up to 38th Street and from Hamilton Street up to Trumbull Street.

One of the five homes is 3305 Washington St., which is Sinclair’s childhood home.

Now a Rock Hill, South Carolina, resident, Sinclair and his wife, Kristin Sinclair, are wanting to give back to the community that raised them.

Kristin is a Barnesville native who joked that despite both being from Belmont County she was never invited to his Bellaire home.

Over the past year, the foundation has sponsored $300,000 in projects in those communities, according to Sinclair. Their donations have gone to food pantries, churches and schools.

“We’ve been blessed with good health. We’re still alive and we’re not kids anymore, and we’ve done very, very well financially. We happen to have the right team to work with the right talent in the right place at the right time, and we retired in April of last year, and we were coming back to communities that helped us get a leg up in life,” Sinclair said. “There’s a national shortage of housing, and there’s an overabundance nationally. It’s not just a Bellaire Ohio problem, it’s a national problem of distressed blighted housing. And what we want to do and what we’re trying to do is to tear down blighted housing and build new.”

He added that the homes will be smaller one-story homes. They will be nice and something that the owners will be proud to call home.

“The children of Bellaire deserve better homes in better neighborhoods,” Sinclair Foundation co-founder Donn Sinclair said. “The Sinclair foundation, we started formally in March of 2024, and it is our money that we set aside from our business, which was Sinclair financial. Our son [Bruce Sinclair] retained a good part of it, and he runs it now, but we took out, if you will, our share, and converted it and donated the money. It went directly to the Sinclair Foundation.”

He added that the purpose of the Sinclair Foundation is to give back to communities and help them move forward in the 21st century.

Each house is estimated to cost $250,000 to construct.

Contractor Matt Davis of Davis Homes Inc. said that he expects the project to break ground within the next month. He said that his crew would probably begin working on the project in May.

“My guess is to complete the project, it’ll probably take somewhere around five months from start to finish,” Davis said. “They have some foundation work that they have to do here first, and then by the time we get started, we’re probably looking at four to five months to completion.”

Mayor Robert Dodrill was elected in November. When running, a big part of his promise was for the beautification of Bellaire.

“Beautification is extremely important. There’s a lot of dilapidated houses and properties around the village that were run down and whatnot. He’s purchased a lot of these properties to beautify the area and try to get more people to want to come to the village,” Dodrill said. “They’re an awesome group to work with and I’m just excited for them to be here, because I’ve known Mr. Sinclair for a long time and know his family. They’re great people who want to see Bellaire thrive, just like I do.”

He added that he believes the Sinclair Foundation’s generosity will greatly impact the village.