FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- With golden shovels raised high, the developer of a Hollywood casino in suburban Columbus will officially break ground today on the $400 million project despite an ongoing fight with neighboring Columbus that has left the property without water or sewer service.

Tim Wilmott, president and chief operating officer of Penn National Gaming Inc., the developer, is expected to boast about the project -- the largest of the four Las Vegas-style casinos now being built in Ohio -- to the elected officials, community leaders and well-wishers who gather at 113-acre Franklin Township site, once home to a massive Delphi Corp. auto parts plant.

But the glitzy ceremony isn't likely to draw any Columbus city leaders, who pushed the casino out of the downtown Arena District last year and are now locked in a dog-fight with Penn National over annexing the new casino property to the city, which it adjoins.

At stake is million of dollars: If Penn refuses to allow the annexation, Columbus could lose as much as $9 million a year in casino tax revenue earmarked for host cities, according to the 2009 constitutional amendment passed by Ohio voters.

Penn National officials counter that they voluntarily agreed to move the casino location when city leaders said they didn't want it downtown. They say they've lost $30 million on the Arena District property, and that elected officials and business executives promised they'd help soften the financial blow caused by moving.

"It's a lot of money," said Bob Tenenbaum, a Penn National spokesman. "And the city had indicated that it would try to be helpful in recouping some of those losses."

"The city immediately got it's back up and said, 'No, no, no, we didn't promise anything. You promised to annex,'" he said. "But I think anybody would say, 'Wait a minute, why would Penn National agree to annex to the city in return for absolutely nothing.' "

But city leaders say getting water and sewer service isn't nothing. And they add that both Penn National and business officials repeatedly promised Columbus that it would get the host city casino tax revenue if residents supported a location change in a statewide referendum last May. That measure, Issue 2, passed overwhelmingly.

"They're the ones reneging on the promises," said Mike Curtin, the Columbus Dispatch's associate publisher emeritus and the point person for the business community in working with Penn National on Issue 2.

The Dispatch Printing Company, which owns the Columbus Dispatch as well as a local television and radio station, was the most vocal of the businesses against the casino in the Arena District, where it owns about 20 percent of the property.

So, when Penn National agreed to change the location, Dispatch Printing poured $400,000 of its own money into the statewide referendum, raised another $1.6 million for the effort, and provided editorial support.

"We feel there's a moral obligation to deliver on the promises we jointly made," Curtin added. "Those promises included, explicitly, in all the materials we put out, what the tax revenues to Columbus would be."

The fighting has gone well beyond words. Penn National last month sued city officials -- including Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, his chief of staff, and all seven city council members -- in federal court to force the city to reconnect the water and sewer service to the site.

The Delphi property had been receiving services from the city for more than 50 years, until Penn National bought the site.

The first hearing on that lawsuit is scheduled for May 23.

Not to be outdone, a subsidiary of Dispatch Printing paid $95,000 in late March for a piece of property adjoining the casino site. As an adjacent property owner, the company filed a challenge Thursday with county officials to Penn National's zoning certificate application on public health grounds, saying it offers no information on sanitary sewers.

"Our goal is to have Penn National fulfill its promise to the community to annex to the city of Columbus," explained Steven Tigges, lawyer for Strata 33 Investments LLC, the casino's new neighbor, and the Dispatch Printing Co.

Penn National has received state permits to begin construction of the foundation and a parking garage, but needs a zoning certificate for work to continue.

All of this intervention by Dispatch Printing has prompted Penn National to say that the media company is using its bully pulpit to crusade for its business interests and against Penn National.

"You can judge for yourself whether our news coverage has been balanced," Curtin said. "In my view it has been."

Curtin said that the newspapers editorials have been strong, as they should be.

"The paper has disclosed its conflicts at every opportunity in the past two years, for as long as we've been in this," Curtin added. "The fact that the Dispatch Printing Co. owns 20 percent of the Arena District has been disclosed innumerable times."

Penn National says the 18-month construction project in Franklin Township will bring the area 5,500 jobs, for both construction and casino workers, and a Las Vegas-style casino that will be the largest of the four now being built in Columbus, Toledo, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

The Hollywood Casino Columbus, scheduled to open late next year, will have 3,000 slot machines, 70 table games, a poker room and two restaurants -- a buffet and a steakhouse.

All that's great, city leaders say. But they add it will never happen without Columbus water and sewer service.

"The fact that they over-paid for a property in the Arena District is unfortunate, but that isn't the fault of the city of Columbus," said Dan Williamson, spokesman for Columbus Mayor Coleman.

It wouldn't make any sense to give Penn National water and sewer without annexation, he said. "If they come into the city of Columbus, we will absolutely turn it on," Williamson said.