The Camerons hired Richard Bell Associates to design Figure Eight's development concept. John Oxenfeld and Haywood Newkirk, Sr. were brought on to design the early houses. The first lots sold for as little as $5,000, and the first house was constructed in 1966. On March 30, 1971 the Camerons sold Figure Eight Island to Young M. Smith, Jr., an attorney and developer from Hickory, North Carolina, for $4 million. Smith's company, The Litchfield Company, was already in the process of building a luxury condominium complex near Pawleys Island, South Carolina. When the change of ownership over Figure Eight took place, thirty houses and one hundred and twelve lots were sold. Smith brought architects Ligon Flynn and Henry Johnston in on the development project as well as landscape architect Dick Bell. Smith's wife was the grand niece of the late Julian Price, a wealthy insurance executive of Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company in Greensboro. Price's son, Ralph Clay Price, who inherited the business, left his niece and her brothers as heirs to the Price estate. Much of their fortune was invested in the development of Figure Eight Island. The local marina club opened on August 11, 1973.