I pulled my chair out at the head of the table, set my phone beside a stack of blueprints, and finally looked down at the scale model sitting in the middle of the room. If everything went according to plan, Harbor Point would be one of the biggest developments Empire had ever put its name on.
The room settled down once I sat down, but I didn’t mistake silence for preparation. It was habit. People tended to stop talking when I walked in, then waited to see where I was looking before they decided what mattered. I let the quietness linger a little longer while flipping through the packet Stephanie had placed in front of me. it was thirty-two pages of projections, environmental reports, contractor bids, revised budgets and architectural renderings. Half of it I’d already read before sunrise.
“Alright,” I said without looking up. “Let’s stop reading paperwork everybody should’ve read before they got here. Tell me what’s changed.”
The project manager, David, straightened up in his chair. “The only real issue right now is the drainage revision. Engineering believes it’ll push us back another four to six weeks.”
I finally looked up. “Engineering believes?”
He hesitated. “That’s their recommendation.”
“So whose meeting am I in?” I questioned as the room stayed quiet. I closed the packet and slid it toward the center of the table. “If engineering’s running the project, I can go back upstairs.”
A couple of nervous chuckles floated around the room before dying just as quickly. David cleared his throat. “What I mean is, after reviewing the revised report…”
“No.” I shook my head cutting him off. “Say what you mean the first time.”
He nodded. “We’ll be delayed.”
“There you go.”
I leaned back in my chair, with my eyes drifting toward the scale model sitting in the middle of the table. Somebody had spent weeks putting it together. Every balcony, every palm tree, every parking entrance had been handcrafted down to the smallest detail. It was impressive as fuck. It also didn’t make anybody any money.
“The delay don’t bother me.” I said. That caught their attention. “What bothers me is why we’re delayed.”
The structural engineer slid a set of plans toward me. “We can redesign the retention system.”
“You should’ve.” I grilled him. He simply dropped his head and looked down at the table while I continued. “The county requirements were updated almost a year ago.”
Nobody answered. I wasn’t saying it to embarrass him. I was saying it because somebody should’ve caught it before today.
One of the investors folded his hands together. “What’s the solution?”
I stood, unbuttoning my jacket as I walked toward the model. My finger traced the back portion of the property where the retention area sat before moving toward the waterfront. “You move this line.”
The architect stood beside me. “That affects the parking garage.”
“It affects everything.”
He studied the model. “Well, actually you’re right.”
“I know.”
He laughed quietly before looking back down. I continued. “If we shift the garage entrance twenty feet east, we gain enough room without sacrificing any residential units.”
“Exactly.” The investor smiled.
“So how long?” I asked.
The architect looked toward the engineer.
“If we start today…” He paused, already doing the math in his head. “About two weeks.”
I raised a brow. “Not six?”
He shook his head. “No.”
I looked back toward David. “Call the contractor after this meeting.”
