West Columbia developers conspired to ruin next door small business, lawsuit alleges

Builders, developers, engineers and others who took part in the controversial new Brookland development in West Columbia conspired to destroy a small business owner’s property, a recent lawsuit alleges.

Longtime West Columbia resident Karen Hoover filed the lawsuit on April 10 in Richland County Court of Common Pleas after closing her business of four years, Newfangled Consignments, at the end of March. Hoover said construction next door weakened the foundation of her building and its walls began to crack.

The parking lot for the building at 351 Meeting St. started sinking, Hoover said, just as the road did in front. Pipes under the building were damaged, causing water to the business to be cut off, she said. And now it’s too late to salvage the property Hoover said she poured her savings into.

A survey by the Chao & Associates engineering firm conducted on Hoover’s building said structural repair work could cost more than $400,000.

Brookland is one of the biggest developments underway near downtown Columbia. It is expected to bring new businesses and residents to West Columbia’s promising riverfront area. The development will include apartment housing, retail space and underground parking.

Hoover said she decided to invest in the property because she wanted to be part of the riverfront growth, but those plans are dead.

“I’m disappointed that my building is not going to be a part of that right now,” she said.

Hoover’s lawsuit names 11 defendants: Estates Management Co., its subsidiary company, WECO River District and its principal shareholder, Robert Mundy; Carter and Carter Construction and its subcontractors: CBG, Terratec, GS2 Engineering Environmental Consultants, Hayward Baker, Modern Exterminating Co. and Seamon Whiteside; and Stienburg Design Collaborative.

Though the city of West Columbia is not named in the complaint, council member Tem Miles said he spoke with Hoover about her concerns as they were developing.

“I feel very, very bad for Ms. Hoover and for her business,” Miles told The State.

As council member for the riverfront district, Miles said he fielded Hoover’s questions, but ultimately could not mediate between Hoover and the new Brookland team. Miles said Hoover was told during contract discussions that there would be development going on around her and that her property line was the boundary.

Meanwhile, Hoover said, the city should have intervened somehow.

“They should not have let them build that close to me. They should have been overseeing the project,” she said.

But in her lawsuit, Hoover alleges that problems began years before the cracks appeared. Robert Mundy tried to block Hoover from purchasing the site — which is the lone structure at the corner of the new development — and convince the city to sell it to him, instead.

When that didn’t happen, the lawsuit says, Mundy and the other contractors purposefully used “unreasonable, unprofessional and incompetent design and construction” techniques to harm Hoover’s property.

Once the building began being affected by the construction next door, Hoover said Mundy approached her and offered to buy the property at a price so low it was “an insult.”

Mundy and the other firms involved with new Brookland were negligent, a private nuisance and engaged in a civil conspiracy to make Hoover’s property “uninhabitable” and ultimately, unprofitable, according to the claim.

Hoover is seeking actual and punitive damages and legal fees.

Modern Extermination Co. said it was not liable because it did not take part in construction. Other defendants in the lawsuit did not return requests for comment by Monday morning.

This story was originally published April 29, 2019 at 10:38 AM.