Simon Liu saw his father’s butcher shop seized by communists in China. Now the butcher’s son is facing government seizure of his own New York-based business as part of real estate developer Bruce Ratner’s plan to bring the New Jersey Nets and 7,300 housing units to Brooklyn.

Last year, Mr. Liu performed a teary rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a protest rally organized by opponents of the Ratner plan. The development near the Atlantic Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn would require bulldozing his business, a specialty store that provides customized canvases to well-known artists and galleries.

“I lost my voice. It was so emotional, I couldn’t sing,” Mr. Liu said. “I was there to fight eminent domain. I had no other political agenda.”

Mr. Liu and his wife, Susan Goldberg, own and operate Simon Liu Incorporated on Dean Street inside the footprint of the Atlantic Yards site.

In the last two weeks, Mr. Ratner’s project has cleared two significant hurdles in securing approvals for his $3.5 billion proposal to erect more than a dozen offices, and residential towers, a hotel, and a basketball arena.

On September 14, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved the developer’s offer of $100 million to purchase the rights to build over the train yard.

Two days later, city and state officials said they would contract with Mr. Ratner’s firm, Forest City Ratner Companies, and that the city and state would probably condemn some properties before construction gets under way as early as next year.

Supporters of the project, who include the mayor and governor, say that it will add thousands of units of affordable housing and permanent jobs.

The threat of condemnation is now imminent for properties inside the footprint that have not yet sold to Mr. Ratner. In May, the developer owned or controlled more than 50% of the 43 commercial properties in the project’s footprint, a percentage that is higher now.

A spokeswoman for Forest City Ratner said the company refused to comment on private negotiations with any property owners.

Mr. Liu said that even after what happened to his father, he never thought that the powers of government would be used to seize his own property. “My father would seldom talk about that,” Mr. Liu said. “I could never imagine it would happen here.”

Mr. Liu, now 50 years old and a naturalized American citizen, launched his business on his own in 1985. He bought his current building in 1997 for around $300,000. Now his business employs up to 26 workers and caters to a high-end clientele that includes artists Damien Hirst and Chuck Close, as well as several Manhattan galleries.

Mr. Liu remembers learning about the development roughly two years ago: “As soon I finished a renovation, my neighbor knocked on my door and said, ‘You know, your building is in the footprint. And they are going to use eminent domain to take your building for their arena.'”

“I said, ‘What’s eminent domain?’ I didn’t even know what it was,” Mr. Liu said. Mr. Liu said negotiations with Forest City Ratner were initially informal and gave him confidence that an agreeable settlement would be reached. He said the developer agreed to relocate him within the vicinity and even help him expand. He found comparable neighborhood properties in the $4 million to $6 million range that could accommodate his growing business.

But when the discussions turned toward cost, Mr. Liu said the developer’s attorneys appeared for the first time. They offered him less than $2 million for his building and said if Mr.Liu wanted to move to a comparable location in the neighborhood, he would need to pick up the difference.

Last Wednesday, Mr. Liu spoke with Forest City Ratner executive vice president, James Stuckey. But the discussion yielded no new progress, Mr. Liu said. He said he now sees his choices as bad and worse.

“I can compromise and take the loss, or I can try to see in three years, when the courts settle, if I will get more money from them,” Mr. Liu said. “The extra money will probably go to the condemnation lawyers.”

Mr. Liu said he believes the developer’s strategy is to use fear of condemnation to coerce owners to accept lower offers. He wants the price that his building would get if it did not face the threat of condemnation, a price that he feels would be significantly higher.

Brooklyn realtor William Ross of Halstead, a supporter of the project, said that based on the expected growth of the Atlantic Yards area, if Mr. Liu’s property were not threatened with condemnation he could expect a price of 10% to 20% over the regular market rate – or roughly $260 a square foot for the 11,400 square-foot building.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he got somewhere between $2.5 and $3 million,” Mr. Ross said.

But Mr. Ross added that even that price might not guarantee Mr.Liu a similar space in a neighborhood nearby.

“Right there, there is not that much inventory for that kind of property,” Mr. Ross said. “Because of a lack of availability, what you get is higher prices.”

The city and state have pledged $200 million to the project, which still faces an environmental review. In addition, the sale of development rights must gain approval by the state’s Public Authorities Control Board.