Letters have gone out to business owners in the downtown hospital zone. Attorneys with Bond, Schoeneck and King, hired by MVHS, want to meet with the property owners and share the appraisals they got for their businesses.

"Do you think that this is really comparable to your property? Do you think this is a good way to value your property?" said attorney Kathleen Bennett. And if they provide us with additional information with respect to the value of their property, I'm going to go back and talk to the appraiser about that and I'm gonna say, 'did you consider this? Did you consider that?'"

Business owner Joe Cerini spent part of Thursday afternoon sitting in his car, outside his Lafayette Street business, waiting for a hospital-hired surveyor to reach his property....so he could tell him to leave.

"They're not allowed to be on the property. I mean, if they're surveying to buy my property, I'm not selling my property," said Cerini.

Cerini owns Citation Services. The copier/fax sales and service business has been at its Lafayette Street location for 17 years. Cerini says he'll listen to the attorney, but doesn't anticipate wanting to uproot his business.

"I have 18000 square foot of space here. It's filled with lots of office equipment. I've got customers for 35 years."

The attorney, however, is pretty confident.

"We probably resolve I'd say a good 80% of them, 80-90%, but there's alwyas a handful who continue to hold out and in that situation we're kind of forced to go through the court process, the eminent domain process," says Bennett.

"I'm gonna be the last person standing," said Cerini.