The man convicted of arson in a building fire in the East Bay was sentenced to five years in prison Monday, ending one case in a string of mysterious construction-site blazes that continues to haunt area developers.

Dustin Bellinger, who also goes by Faheem Bey, pleaded guilty this summer to setting fire nearly a year ago to the unfinished Hollis Oak apartments on the Oakland-Emeryville border, in a blaze that quickly fizzled out.

The fire was one of 10 at under-construction housing complexes in the East Bay since 2012 — in cities including Oakland, Emeryville and Concord. While the cause of some remain undetermined, investigators have pinned several of the fires on unidentified arsonists, spawning theories of political terrorism amid gentrification and spiking housing costs.

In Oakland, U.S. District Judge Haywood Stirling Gilliam Jr. ordered Bellinger to prison and also to spend three years on supervised probation and to pay building owners $97,000 in restitution. The sentence came as a joint recommendation from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

In a brief statement during his sentencing, Bellinger noted that he used to provide help to homeless people on the street.

“I sort of lost myself along the way,” he said.

Bellinger, 45, was a self-employed handyman and part-time construction worker from Oakland at the time of his November arrest.

Defense attorneys argued that the five-year sentence — the minimum allowed — was fitting for Bellinger, who they said suffers from mental illness and faced an “extremely challenging upbringing.”

The same morning as the Hollis Street fire, a massive inferno ripped through a 126-unit residential construction site known as the Ice House complex 10 blocks away.

Officials have not linked any suspect to the Ice House fire or any of the other construction-site blazes, some of which completely leveled the structures.

But the Hollis Street fire’s relatively minor damage left key evidence for investigators. Oakland fire and ATF officials determined that the fire had started in the corner of a first-floor bathroom, where either a match or lighter set fire to gasoline that had been poured in the area, according to court documents.

A hammer and red plastic gasoline container with a rag stuffed into its spout were discovered near a broken window of the complex, and investigators noted a “reddish-brown smudge” on the sill of the broken window. A DNA analysis would later tie Bellinger to both the smudge and a profile found on the rag.

A Chronicle report last year tallied nine times since 2012 that a fire broke out at an under-construction project in the East Bay. In June of this year, another blaze destroyed a two-story building at 919 Stanford Ave. that was slated to house seven to nine loft-style units.

In response to emailed questions about the other East Bay fires, ATF spokeswoman Alexandria A. Corneiro said “there are fires that occurred in the Bay Area that are currently still under investigation.”

Corneiro said fire officials have not made any assumptions on whether any of the blazes under their purview are connected.

Fire investigators have determined that several of the East Bay fires were the work of arsonists. Surveillance footage captured an unknown person scaling a fence into the Renaissance Square project in Concord in the early morning hours of April 24, 2018, and then fleeing as the blaze erupted inside.

A surveillance camera also captured the apparent arsonist responsible for the fire at the Intersection in Emeryville on May 13, 2017, which caused an estimated $35 million in damage.

Bellinger was not linked to any of the other fires. In an application to seal his affidavit last year, prosecutors wrote that Bellinger’s case was “an ongoing investigation into one of several arsons,” but officials never noted the other fires in subsequent court records or in hearings.

The threat of attack prompted East Bay developers to invest in costly anti-arson protections like 24-7 guards, dogs, cameras and fences.

Greg McConnell, president and CEO of the Oakland developers lobbying group Jobs and Housing Coalition, said Monday he is not aware of any arson arrests since Bellinger.

McConnell noted that the methods used in the Hollis Street arson didn’t track with the others. Other fires erupted when the sites were most vulnerable — before sprinklers or flame-resistant Sheetrock was installed — which wasn’t the case at Hollis Oak.

“The fellow who was sentenced today — that is a very different profile from the other fires,” he said. “I don’t feel like we’re out of the woods.”

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy