You are right in saying that the developer stood for most of the cost. The developer is a large real estate development company traded on the New York exchange, so they have reputation to protect. Goes to show you what leverage you can get when someone has to protect the value of a trade name that has taken years to develop.
If interested, this same developer developes residential all over the South, with several in Texas. Their new thing is to build lake development s with lakes as primary draw.

Mike