He's never had the option to buy until the project was fully approved. A legal battle over zoning was started like 5 years ago and took until last Summer to be resolved. It's worth noting that suit was financed by competing property owners.

By that point, yes, a fuckton has changed about the cost of literally everything, so they went for a redesign that still needs formal approval before the sale happens.

At no point has there ever been a point where construction could have started and there's really nothing to suggest funding the project is a hurdle beyond the developer not wanting to go above the 300ish million price tag.