In court Monday, B&B Holdings LLC focused attention on the relationship between Carilion Clinic and Roanoke as the company argued that the South Jefferson Redevelopment plan was ill-conceived and not supported by facts.

The arguments were made during the first day of a scheduled two-day bench trial before Judge William Broadhurst in Roanoke Circuit Court over the condemnation case between the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority and B&B.

B&B is fighting the housing authority's attempt to condemn two adjacent properties that it owns on Reserve Avenue Southwest. The properties are home to the flooring company Surfaces Inc.

B&B argued that the housing authority does not have the right to take its property through eminent domain because the redevelopment plan was flawed and written based on unsubstantiated facts.

Specifically, B&B is challenging how the conclusion that the majority of the redevelopment area was blighted or created a blighted influence was reached.

Experts for B&B testified that the information needed to support a blight determination were not properly documented by consultants hired for the housing authority in conjunction with the redevelopment plan.

The company is also challenging the secretive nature in which the city manager, Carilion and the Carilion Biomedical Institute negotiated the decision to locate the institute in Roanoke.

Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham testified that the project went by the code name "Andy's Warehouse" and that there was no need for public input early in the process, which began in the fall of 1999.

"This area was tired looking, not well-kept, in disrepair and had, in my opinion, a blighted influence to the immediate downtown," Burcham said.

Joseph Waldo, the attorney for B&B, said that 11 months before there was any official determination of blight, Carilion and the city had entered into an agreement to locate the biomedical institute and park in what would become the South Jefferson Redevelopment Area. The plan was officially adopted in March 2001.

Mark Loftis, the attorney representing the housing authority, said that the timing essentially didn't matter.

Instead, he said, the question is only whether the area was eligible to be designated as a redevelopment area. He also noted that any agreement between Carilion and the city had a clause indicating that the terms were subject the housing authority's determination of the area as a redevelopment area.

The case resumes at 9 a.m. today. If Broadhurst rules in B&B's favor, the case will in effect be over, leaving the housing authority unable to take the property. If the housing authority prevails, the case will go to a jury trial in December.