In 1901 Gaffoor was granted the privilege of exhibiting pearls, diamonds, rubies and sapphires and art works to the Prince and Princess of Wales during their Royal visit.

In October 1947 the office of Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka (which at the time was the Dominion of Ceylon) was relocated from the Galle Face Hotel to the Gaffoor Building.

In 2008 the Commissioner at the Department of Archeology, Dr. Senarath Dissanayake noted that the "building is in very bad condition and the money spent on its conservation is expected to be in the range of several millions of rupees."

[6] In 2012 a consortium of international investors proposed to redevelop the building into a 4-storey 300 room boutique hotel, at an investment of over US$ 90 million, inclusive of the value of the land.

[8] In 2014 the UDA chairman, Nimal Perera, announced that the authority would be reconstructing and renovating the building, in order to redevelop it as a 63-room hotel, with the ground floor accommodating up to six supermarkets.