The controversy surrounding the long delayed downtown movie theater project appears to be coming to a head in the coming weeks.

Earlier this year, the Cass County Prosecutor’s Office brought a charge of false pretenses of more than $1,000 and less than $20,000 against Dowagiac’s Ken Allen, the developer of the project intended to transform the former Mr. K’s Warehouse, located at 115 Front St., into a single screen movie theater. Allen, who has pleaded not guilty to the crime, is scheduled to face trial on Dec. 15, according to Assistant Prosecutor Tiffiny Vohwinkle.

The fraud charge comes as a result of an investigation conducted by detectives with the Dowagiac Police Department in the early part of the year, after receiving a complaint from City Hall beginning in January.

The city was providing Allen and his company, Forest Finn, with funding for the theater project at the time, based off action taken by city council in July of 2014.

“The city was concerned because there didn’t seem to be any progress,” said Director of Public Safety Steve Grinnewald. “They were paying invoices, but the developer didn’t seem to be making much progress.”

According to Grinnewald, the investigation focused around several thousand dollars worth of theater equipment and building materials that were invoiced to the city by Allen that police believe were never actually purchased by the developer. Detectives failed to locate these items after executing a search warrant on Jan. 28 at the theater and at the man’s residence on Leach Road. Police also contacted the companies Allen claimed to have purchased the goods from, and were told that no record of the purchases existed.

Police forwarded the result of the investigation to the county prosecutor’s office, which brought the charge against Allen in June. The Dowagiac man was arraigned on July 1, pleading not guilty. He is currently free on $35,000 bond.

Allen, who had restored South Bend’s State Theatre in 1994, had been working to turn the former Dowagiac clothing store into a theater and apartments for the last several years. The city agreed to help pay for construction last year after some grant dollars the developer counted on helping to fund the project fell through.

“We, the city, feel we have been the victims in this incident,” said Dowagiac City Manager Anderson. “We will await the court proceedings.”

Simon Hoffmann, Allen’s attorney, said the legal battle between the city and his client stems from the terms of the grants issued for the project.

If convicted, Allen faces up to five years in prison and/or fines of $10,000 or three times the value of property embezzled, whichever amount is greater.