Another board member asked about the exposure if the company did not suspend and the designation proceeded through litigation and Delaney invited to present as independent counsel gave the floor figure. The civil exposure from the 14 documented sales alone began at roughly 40 million dollars before punitive considerations. Sawyer delivered a brief statement from a single handwritten page. He said the house on Hollow Creek Lane had been called worthless by the people who had the most to gain from it being worthless, and that this was not, in his experience, an unusual situation. And when he finished, Vaughn told the room they were listening to a man who had made $59,999 on a $99 investment, and framing it as a civic act.
And Sawyer looked at him and said he hadn't sold anything. Celeste proposed the redesign. The Hollow Creek project would proceed as a heritage-integrated development, adaptive reuse of existing structures where possible, new construction scaled to complement the historic fabric. Tate House designated and open to the public as an interpretive anchor. The project returning less in the first 3 years, and carrying significantly less legal risk than any alternative.
The board voted to authorize the independent review and defer further project action pending its findings. And it was not the full endorsement she needed, but it was enough to stop what had been happening. After the board meeting, Celeste found Sawyer in the hallway outside the conference room, sitting on a bench with his jacket folded over his knee, waiting in the patient way of someone who had learned that important things take longer than they should. And she told him she was prepared to offer him a price that would be difficult to refuse. A figure reflecting the independent appraisal value of the property and its designation, fair by any reasonable measure.