Is this last dance for Cedar Grove businesses?

Eloisa Beyer sways to the Mideastern music, trying not to think of how her bellydancing job might be lost, along with dozens of other jobs to make way for a big redevelopment in Eagan. For her, the city's contentions that the redevelopment will create new jobs comes at her expense.

"I wouldn't have anywhere to go," she said of the unemployment she faces if the Mediterranean Cruise Cafe in Cedar Grove is torn down.

"I would not know what to do. It would affect all of us."

She's talking about the dozen bellydancers who work part-time at the restaurant, the biggest venue for bellydancers in the metro.

The dancing has helped restaurateur Jamal Ansari build a loyal following at his cafe, where he employs 30 workers in all.

The city of Eagan wants to condemn the cafe and five other businesses by using an eminent domain law to take private property for public use.

The city has already bought 93 percent of the land needed on the 65-acre site just off Hwy. 13 and Cedar Av. But opposing property owners challenge the claim that the redevelopment is for public use.

Now, the years-long fight is heading into a final round.

On Monday in Dakota County District Court, Judge Michael Mayer will receive briefs from both sides.

He's to rule whether the city can "quick-take" the final six parcels of property with appraised values totaling $3.39 million.

That would shut down the cafe, auto repair shops and other businesses.

"It would affect all the dancers in town, because they are the most successful people in managing the business and hiring the dancers," Beyer said of Ansari and family.

Ansari, who immigrated from Jerusalem, kept his restaurant going even after road construction reduced access to the Cedarvale shopping center in the 1980s and other businesses moved away.

"My business and my family have worked so hard to serve this community for the past 28 years," Ansari said. "Nobody ought to be treated this way in this country."

The landowners claim that the real reason for the city's "quick-take" process is that it's racing against the clock.

Eagan's Economic Development Authority must spend its money, by buying property, before a July deadline or lose millions in tax collections that the city could use as reimbursement for the project debt.

The area was certified as a tax-increment-financing district, which means that additional tax revenue, as the area's value increases due to redevelopment, could be used to pay debt incurred for that redevelopment. A city has five years to spend from when a TIF district is certified, and Eagan's time runs out in four months.

In papers to be filed Monday, the landowners contend that the city improperly deemed this area "blighted" in order to form a TIF district. As a result, the city cannot justify the need for "quick-take" of the property, said the plaintiffs' attorneys, led by Gary Fuchs of Eagan.

"We're fighting both the quick-take and the eminent domain process," said Randy Quam, owner of Competition Engines, whose building also houses three other businesses that are in limbo.

The city maintains that 57 percent of the buildings on the site were "structurally substandard,' and that redevelopment is needed to cure the "blighted" area, part of the criteria needed to establish a TIF district.

An old eminent domain statute allowed the government to take "blighted" property for redevelopment. In 2006, lawmakers changed the state law to remove that point of contention, but Eagan's proceedings still fall under the old statute. The property owners are challenging its legality.

The city says the public will benefit from a new shopping center, housing, jobs and increased tax base. City Administrator Tom Hedges said the city is offering whatever assistance it can to help relocate the businesses.

In July, Eagan signed a preliminary agreement with partners Kelly Doran of Doran Companies and Len Pratt of Pratt Homes. The development will include retail and office space, apartments, cottage homes, senior care facilities, park-and-ride transit area, and a hotel.

The property owners argue, however, that the city plans are vague and that no developer has signed a final contract.

"This EDA boondoggle has been going on for almost 10 years and there still is no specific redevelopment plan for any part of the redevelopment area," Fuchs said in his brief.

Meanwhile, Ansari and Beyer hang on. "This is really important for me because the restaurant I work for is like my family," said Beyer, 34, of Minneapolis. "They are great people and are really consistent in what they do, and they're very professional. I have a lot of respect for the owner and the family."

Ansari is looking for a new location, without much luck.

"There is no fairness about it," he said. "Fairness means a replacement. I need to stay in business. We worked too hard to lose this."

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017