CAYCE — Nearly a year after a new hotel project riled a quiet Cayce neighborhood, some residents are reporting more problems with debris scattered in yards and harassment from workers.

The concerns temporarily halted construction at the hotel while changes could be made.

Tension rose in Cayce’s Churchill Heights neighborhood, about 15 minutes down Airport Boulevard from downtown Columbia, when crews began clearing a plot at the entrance to the neighborhood to build a three-story Fairfield Inn in July 2025.

The developer hopes to provide a higher-end hotel for travelers coming from the nearby Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Neighborhood residents were frustrated with the little prior notice they had been given for the project, as well as traffic and privacy concerns in the neighborhood.

The dispute became a key issue ahead of the City Council race last November, which saw the neighborhood’s councilman lose his seat to a Churchill Heights resident who had been a vocal critic of how the hotel came about.

Cayce’s location at the crossroads of the growing Midlands region has long made it a prime location for developers and residents alike. Sitting across the Congaree River from downtown Columbia, it also contains significant stretches of Interstate 26 and 77.

City leaders have continued to work to balance the community’s smaller-city feel while also encouraging new businesses, as some high-profile developments have generated controversy amongst residents in the recent past.

As the hotel nears completion — the developer expects it to open this August — some neighbors are reporting more issues with the construction, as the developer and new city councilmember look to build a relationship between the parties going forward.

“I'm not a fan of the hotel being here, but the fact of the matter is, it's here, it's not going, and it would benefit everybody if the hotel does well and builds a positive relationship with the community,” neighbor Paul Gregory said.

Debris, harassment reported at hotel site

Churchill Heights residents Paul and Breanna Gregory began noticing styrofoam particles and pieces of black fabric throughout their yard in late April. Their home is directly across the street from the rear of the hotel property, separated from the building by a fence and an under-construction retention pond.

The Gregorys were among several residents who became aware of the hotel when land across the street from their front yard began to be cleared.

“We found out when our house started shaking when the trees were coming down,” Paul Gregory said.

Like several other neighbors, the Gregorys worried about privacy — the upper floors of the hotel have a view into the family’s yard — and safety.

But more issues came during the hotel’s construction.

Aside from the styrofoam, the Gregorys also reported:

• Fiberglass in their yard and on their cars, irritating their skin

• Flooding on a portion of their yard after crews hooked a line to a nearby fire hydrant

• A smell of propane or sulfur in the air

• Heavy construction work occurring during quiet hours set by the city

• A construction worker antagonizing one of the family’s dogs by barking from the roof of the hotel

• A construction worker asking to breed his dog with the Gregorys’, and becoming antagonistic when the family declined

• Construction workers peering into the Gregorys’ windows

• Construction workers loudly cursing while neighborhood children were within earshot, and neighbors being accosted when confronting the workers

• A construction worker “cat-calling” Breanna Gregory

“We feel like the privacy, the safety concerns have been justified and the hotel hasn't even had a single guest yet,” Paul Gregory said.

Kasey Lawson, who had been a vocal opponent of the hotel project when work first started, also reported similar issues. Her home is next door to the Gregorys, also within sight of the hotel.

The neighbors reported the issues to the hotel development team, but were unsatisfied with the responses received. They had better luck when they contacted the city, they said.

Work at the hotel paused for a period after the neighbors reported that fiberglass contamination occurred on April 29, Paul said. Afterward, plastic wrapping was added to the hotel’s scaffolding and a privacy screen on the site’s fence, he said.

Lawson and the Gregorys declined the developer’s offer to send workers to clean the property, worrying the blowers the developer offered to bring would be insufficient to remove the styrofoam particles and would damage their yards.

“You guys haven’t followed through on a single promise that you’ve made,” Lawson said. “Why would I let you on my property?”

The neighbors instead hope to receive some financial compensation from the project.

The styrofoam and pieces of black fabric were still present throughout the Gregorys’ yard and in the fur of Lawson’s cat when a reporter visited on May 12.

The Gregorys bought their house in September 2025, and Lawson in May. All three said they would not have bought their homes if they had known the hotel was coming.

Breanna Gregory said her plans to make the house the family’s “forever home” are no longer feasible.

“I don't feel comfortable trying to have kids in this neighborhood, with all those people looking into our yards,” she said. “I barely feel comfortable with the dogs right backyard.”

Developer and city respond

Hotel developer Malav Thakor confirmed the styrofoam found in the neighbors’ yards was from material used in the hotel’s facade. Workers installed plastic screens on scaffolding to keep more debris from blowing from the site, he said.

The site had not been in violation of any codes, and only two homes reported issues beginning in March or April, he said. The pause in work did not affect the hotel’s estimated completion in August 2026, he said.

Thakor also reported the hotel team had offered to send crews to clean the styrofoam from the properties, but the offer was declined. He confirmed the city asked that work on the hotel’s exterior stop for a “couple of weeks,” but said the city never issued a formal stop-work order.

“(The city) might have thought that we were in violation of codes or whatever, but we were not,” he said. “But again, we took it seriously. We tried to offer help and they denied us access, which gave us no choice to help them.”

Thakor was also made aware of the complaints of worker behavior, which he relayed to the project contractor and subcontractor.

The exact timing of the complaints and pause in work was not clear. The Post and Courier Columbia has requested a copy of any stop-work order issued to the site as well as records of city staff communication regarding the hotel’s construction and neighbor concerns.

Alice Rose, who was elected as the neighborhood’s City Councilwoman after being a vocal critic of the hotel’s construction, said a stop-work order had been issued.

Rose spoke with the Gregorys and Lawson about their concerns, but did not experience them at her home a few blocks further away from the construction site, she said.

“When you have a construction site so close to an established neighborhood, I mean, it was going to happen,” she said. “I guess, it’s really disappointing that there weren't better precautions taken, but you know, it's not like it's an intentional act.”

Rose hasn’t heard of any more issues since work was temporarily halted, and city staff have been watching the site closely since then, she said.

Rose added that she had never been opposed to the hotel being built on the property, which had been zoned for commercial development, but took issue with the lack of prior notice given to the neighborhood.

She said she hoped the hotel would be a success, and that the city’s ongoing work to create a new unified development ordinance would address the issues the neighborhood has had.

“We really have the opportunity to make sure that future developments are done in everybody's best interest,” she said.

Thakor believes the relationship with the neighborhood has improved since construction started. The development team added landscaping and fencing as a buffer between the site and homes as requested by neighbors, adding “significant costs” to the project, he said.

“If we didn't want to have a good relationship with the neighbors, we would not have addressed any of their comments or anything else,” he said. “But we did so, because we want to be a good neighbor, and we want to be a good steward of this relationship that we're trying to have with the neighborhood and the residents.”