[8] The theater discontinued operations and the building was vacant starting in 1994; various conversion plans, including a Rite Aid drugstore, fell through after opposition from local government and neighborhood groups.

[1] The front facade was removed in preparation for the rebranding, but the project fell through following the collapse of the dot-com bubble in 2000, and the temporary plywood became the public face of the Pagoda Palace.

Under the terms of the agreement, the city would lease the property to extract the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) "Big Alma" and "Mom Chung" (named, respectively, for "Big" Alma Spreckels and Dr. Margaret "Mom" Chung), and in return, the property would be reclassified to exempt the planned condominium building from certain Planning Code regulations, including off-street parking and building height.

[15] Extending the tunnel to the Pagoda site would lay the groundwork for a potential future Muni Metro station in North Beach, and was offered as a compromise instead of digging up Columbus Street to retrieve the TBMs, which would have disrupted traffic and slowed local business.

[19] A November 2015 policy analysis report commissioned by Supervisor Christensen identified three neighboring alternate sites that could be used to construct a proposed North Beach station for T-Third.

[21] Despite speculation that Campos never intended to build on the site and may have been negotiating for a better price from the city,[22] construction of the new The Palace at Washington Square luxury condominiums[23] commenced in March 2016.