Brothers Building Affordable, Upscale Homes in Calcutta
CALCUTTA, Ohio – Anyone can build a half-million-dollar home, but two local brothers are determined to build brand-new upscale homes for much less, having just sold their first one and working on the second in St. Clair Township.
Chris and Eric Williams are the owners of Riverbuilt Homes, a new enterprise aimed at providing quality homes for middle-income and working-class families in the tri-state area.
Speaking from his Tampa, Florida, home this week, Eric said he and his brother have just completed the sale of their first newly built home in Blakeley Point, a 5-acre development at the corner of state Route 170 and Duke Road just outside Calcutta.
The family that purchased the 1,700-square-foot Laneywood model home moved into the area from outside, purchasing the home only five days after it was placed on the market.
Eric said plans call for building three more affordable homes in the Blakeley Point development, and then to turn their attention to other locations for construction, including sometime in the future the former Trotter Farm in Beaver Crest Estates, which will provide eight lots.
“We’re super excited. It’s been a long time in the making,” Eric said of Riverbuilt Homes, plans for which he and his brother spent a year “tossing back and forth.”
“We had that tract of land for years,” Eric said. “The thing that sparked us is, we wanted to build.”
He and his brother “flipped” many homes and worked on others over the years. Their father purchased and built up River Valley Realty over the past 20 years, and Eric is a real estate agent for the firm.
Eric said when they decided to build homes, however, they could not find contractors who focused on homes for blue-collar families.
“We finally started to plug in the numbers and said there is an opportunity here, and said, ‘Let’s try it,'” he said.
Using local plumbers and vendors and doing some work themselves, the Williams brothers chose the designs and the colors, even though they have completely different tastes.
“We talk about everything. We mix up the colors and do beautiful, accent walls. We took kind of a bold stance, and the outcome was absolutely beautiful,” Eric said of their first home.
“Anyone can build a half-million-dollar home, but that wasn’t our goal. We wanted to build a home people could afford. We tried to build a home that says it is as beautiful as possible but affordable,” he said.
The price range of the turn-key homes will be between $190 and $200 per square foot, which includes landscaping, ethernet wiring, security cameras, smart doorbell, WiFi thermostat and EV chargers in the garage.
In addition, based on both brothers’ long-time association as firefighters in the local fire department, the smoke detector system is top of the line, and the homes will have redundant drainage in the basements.
“I’m proud to put my personal name on this house,” Eric said of their first endeavor, which boasts three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 9-foot-high main ceilings, 8-foot-high ceilings on the upper floor, a fireplace in the main living space, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances in the kitchen and more.
The brothers incorporated their family in the project, using their niece’s and nephew’s names in the development and home design names. In addition, after seeing the well-known Feldman Building standing empty on St. Clair Avenue, they purchased it as their headquarters.
“We’re trying to keep our money local,” Eric said.
With the cracker plant now located in nearby Monaca, Pa., Eric said they believe there will be a demand for their brand of affordable, upscale housing. He said the second lot is already on the market, with groundbreaking on the house for that lot slated within 30 days.
“We’re really excited. We didn’t know how it would go,” Eric said.
More information on Riverbuilt Homes is available HERE.
Pictured at top: Brothers Chris and Eric Williams, owners of Riverbuilt Homes.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
