Roanoke's housing authority will be in court Monday as it continues efforts to condemn a business property that sits on the medical campus being developed by Carilion Clinic.

The battle between B&B Holdings LLC and the city's housing authority dates back nearly a decade to when the city first announced plans to redevelop the land along South Jefferson and Reserve Avenue into a biomedical park.

It wasn't until 2007, after the city acquired several other properties in the redevelopment area, that a lawsuit was filed to condemn two adjacent properties owned by B&B. The properties are home to Surfaces Inc., a flooring company with about 45 employees and contractors.

The condemnation case is scheduled to be in Roanoke Circuit Court for a two-day bench trial before Judge William Broadhurst starting Monday as B&B contests the validity of the redevelopment plan and the housing authority's right to take the property by eminent domain.

"We're going to prove that Carilion and the city got together in advance and decided to make that land available for Carilion. And then, to satisfy the agreement, adopted the redevelopment plan," said Joseph Waldo, B&B's lawyer. "The cart was clearly before the horse."

Originally slated to be a biomedical business park, the area has evolved into a home for Carilion physicians and the new Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute.

The latest estimated budget for the redevelopment project has grown to $26 million from an early estimate in 2000 of $14 million, according to the cooperation agreement between the city and the housing authority.

The housing authority's lawyer, Mark Loftis, said while Carilion and the city did talk about the South Jefferson area and the biomedical park early on, it didn't affect the housing authority's role.

The housing authority has argued that the purpose of the redevelopment plan is to remove blight and blighting influences.

"Certainly Carilion and the city had discussions and Carilion was interested in this area, but the housing authority is the one that engaged the consultants and made the blight determination," Loftis said. "While the city entered into agreements with Carilion, those don't bind the housing authority."

B&B is not considered a blighted property. Instead, it was surrounded by blight, and under the law at the time of the 2001 plan, the housing authority could include properties that were not blighted so long as the majority of the properties in redevelopment areas were blighted, Loftis said.

According to the redevelopment plan, 74.4 percent of the South Jefferson redevelopment area was either blighted or improperly developed.

That law was later changed to say the property must be blighted in order to be condemned.

If Broadhurst rules in B&B's favor, the case will in effect be over, leaving the housing authority unable to take the property. However, the housing authority would appeal that decision, Loftis said.

If the housing authority prevails, the case is scheduled to go to a jury trial in December.

Over the years the B&B property owners have been among the most vocal critics of the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority's process for creating the biomedical park, hiring Waldo, a prominent eminent domain lawyer, early on to help fight the city.

"It will be one of the most important eminent domain cases in Virginia in the next several years," Waldo said of the B&B case.

In 2006, B&B rejected the housing authority's offer of just more than $1 million for the two properties. The 2009 combined assessed value of the properties is $1.34 million, according to Roanoke's geographic information system. B&B purchased both parcels, which total nearly 3 acres, in 1999 from Norfolk Southern. The land was part of a former rail yard.

A second 2007 appraisal done by the housing authority valued the property at about $1.6 million.

Waldo emphasized the property was never for sale.

"They don't want to go," Waldo said. "And they are being forced out because Carilion made a deal with the city and the city manager, Darlene Burcham."

Waldo said he has subpoenaed an array of players from Carilion and the city for the upcoming trial, including Burcham.

In August, Broadhurst ruled that the housing authority properly invoked the court's jurisdiction to condemn the B&B property through eminent domain.

The case is one of four cases involving the redevelopment area. A second involves a countersuit filed by B&B against the housing authority. The other two cases involve a nearby commercial property in the 1200 block of Williamson Road owned by William Stegall and his wife.

The Stegalls, who are also represented by Waldo, argue that the housing authority adopted plans to condemn their land but never followed through, making it impossible to rent or sell the property and diminishing its value.

That suit was filed in 2007. In November, the city filed suit to condemn the Stegall property.