HONOLULU -- The city announced Thursday it’s shifting the airport rail transit line and rail station away from the Honolulu International Airport runway, so it won't be too close to federal airspace.

The city is still calculating exactly how much the change will cost, but officials said the new alignment will be more expensive. The city said its old alignment closer to the airport would have required condemnation of very few properties. But the new one will require the city to acquire six parcels and that has some airport-area businesses nervous.

The previous alignment went down relatively undeveloped Aolele Street, which was too close to the airport's runway. So the city is moving the rail line and its rail station one block mauka to a portion of Ualena Street. The four-story rail station will now be at the corner of Ualena St. and Lagoon Drive.

"We're doing an avoidance around the runway protection zone, which is the obstruction that we're trying to get around right now. That's our constraint," said City Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka.

"This was the issue that was really holding up the [environmental impact statement] and we really appreciate the cooperation shown to us by FAA, FTA [Federal Transit Authority] and most certainly the state DOT," he said.

Businesses whose properties could be condemned to make way for rail near the airport because of the new alignment include a Shell Gas station and food mart and a Chevron gas station. There’s also the old Al Phillips building that now houses Pacific Couriers, an ATM management and armored car service and a warehouse that's home to Elite Auto Group, a car sales and service outlet.

"I'd really love to stay here. I don't wanna move, but I'm just the little guy. I don't have no choice," said Val Cisneros, owner of Elite Auto Group.

Cisneros said he hasn't heard anything from his landlord about any condemnation. That's because the city plans to tell affected property owners within the next week.

He said even if he's paid to relocate, he doesn't want to move. "Once people know where you're at. They're just learning where you're at, a lot of people come in and say, 'Hey, we didn't even know that you were here.' Then you gotta re-do that all over again, it's like starting from scratch," Cisneros said.

The city says half of the parcels it will use for the new airport rail route are on land owned by the state transportation department, while the other half of the lots are privately-owned. A couple of those parcels are vacant, so no businesses will be displaced at those, Yoshioka said.

If there are buildings on the land the city wants to condemn for rail, he city must pay the owners fair market value for the land and the buildings on them. The city must also pay for any businesses there to relocate elsewhere.

City officials said the rail station will be mostly elevated, meaning they won't need entire properties. But the city will need enough space for stairs or escalators and elevators to get passengers to and from the elevated stations.

Asked if he could explain how much the re-alignment will cost, Yoshioka said, "No, right now, we're trying to let our technical staff go through and thoroughly analyze that so we're not throwing out random numbers, and so we'll let them go and do that we can get a good number for you guys."

Construction of the airport segment is set to begin in 2014, which would give the city and area businesses and landowners several years to work out details.