For the Penn Square hotel/convention center, today is one part finish line, one part starting gate.

Developers and backers of the $174 million hotel/convention center on Penn Square this morning will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, one day before the center is scheduled to open.

Yet, while it may look like construction is complete and the lights are ready to come on — after a decade of legal fights, building delays and skyrocketing material costs — today's event is merely another milestone.

What begins when the facility opens Friday is a 20-year effort to pay back debt and confirm whether promises of a successful lodging and meeting center will prove true.

"We're going to see a more active downtown, and hopefully that means more money for our merchants," said Lancaster city Mayor Rick Gray, who won't be attending today's ceremony. He's in San Francisco for his daughter's wedding.

Officials from private developer Penn Square Partners and the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority were not available for comment Wednesday ahead of this morning's 10 o'clock ceremony. The event is open to the public and will take place at the lobby entrance.

Penn Square Partners and the convention center authority teamed up with the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster to build the 300-room Marriott Hotel and 220,000-square-foot convention center.

The $174.4 million budget included $35 million from Penn Square Partners with the rest — $139.4 million — from public sources.

The agreements developers made with public officials during the last decade come down to 20-year contracts, at the end of which Penn Square Partners likely will become sole owner of the hotel. The convention center would continue operating as a public authority.

The hotel building is owned by the redevelopment authority and leased to Penn Square Partners.

Opponents of the project have vowed to remain vigilant on finances. Should Penn Square Partners and the convention center authority fail to repay tens of millions of dollars in publicly held debt, the city and county governments will be responsible for it.

Penn Square Partners is contributing $11 million up front and contracted to pay $24 million in lease payments during the next two decades, but it took on no debt of its own for the project.

Gray said today's ceremony is not the definitive moment for the project.

"I don't want to say it's the beginning or the end of anything," he said. "It's another step forward for the city and improving our downtown and making the core of the core what it can be and recognizing its potential."

Penn Square Partners consists of general partners Penn Square General Corp., a High Industries affiliate, and Penn Square Ltd. LLC, an affiliate of Lancaster Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era and Sunday News.

• In other developments, the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry announced Wednesday its 137th annual dinner has been rescheduled for July 29 at the convention center. Energy developer T. Boone Pickens is still the keynote speaker.

The Chamber had to change its date due to project construction delays this spring.

The cost to attend is $165 and tickets remain available. For more information, contact www.lancasterchamber.com/dinner.

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com