Works crews are making the final touches on the new arena being built on the campus of Brookland-Cayce High School.

Plans were announced for the 1,500-seat Brookland-Cayce basketball/volleyball arena at 613 Knox-Abbott Drive, Cayce in the fall of 2016. It is being built on 3.10 acres at a cost of more than $12 million on the former site of the Motel 6.

“The arena should open around the beginning of January,” Bearcats boys’ basketball coach Robert Wells said. “We look to play our first region game, probably Midland Valley, in there (scheduled for Jan. 15),”

His team will compete in Class 4A this year, after moving up from 3A.

When it’s opened, expect to be impressed. Cayce Mayor Elise Partin loves the idea of the new arena.

“It will be stunning,” Partin said as the building took shape.

With last year’s announcement that Columbia will be a host site for an NCAA postseason basketball regional in 2019, Lexington School District Two planners want to make the new Brookland-Cayce arena available as a practice facility for the NCAA basketball teams in the Columbia regional.

But first, the Bearcats will get to christen the facility. Wells talked about his team this season.

“Overall, our team this year, we’re gonna be young, we’re a young team,” he said. “We have three freshman, and one 8th-grader. But we will compete. Hopefully we can improve as the season goes on, and about time January comes we can compete for a region championship.”

Wells, who has been to a 3A Lower State Final at Brookland-Cayce, is optimistic his team will develop as the year progresses. The Bearcats are currently 4-1 on the season.

“Here at Brookland-Cayce we always have two goals, and that is to win the region championship and to win the state championship,” Wells said. “Hopefully, we can start working towards that goal come January.”