The theater continued to prosper after World War II in spite of a decline in New York City's large neighborhood movie palaces during that time.

The RKO Keith's Theater was at 135-35 Northern Boulevard, at the intersection with Main Street, in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City.

[3] The RKO Keith's was originally conceived as a venue for vaudeville, which in the late 1920s was competing with films; as a result, the design was more elaborate than that of older theaters.

[6] The building's facade on Northern Boulevard was relatively plain, with a curved marquee facing Main Street (later replaced with a horizontal advertising board).

[22][a] The RKO Keith's auditorium was designed to give the feeling that the audience was in a garden, with Baroque, Gothic, and Moorish ornament in the style of Spanish architect J. M. de Churriguera.

[16] At the RKO Keith's opening in 1928, Kelcey Allen of Women's Wear Daily said the ceiling was "a triumph of artistic illusion and ethereal atmospheric suggestions".

[29][30] In May 1926, the Keith–Albee circuit announced that it planned to build three theaters in New York City as part of a nationwide expansion program, including one venue in Flushing, Queens.

[7][21][41] Many stars performed at the theater, including Bob Hope, Jack Benny and the Marx Brothers, Judy Garland, Mae West, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, and Jerry Lewis.

[49][50] For example, the B. F. Keith's Oldtime Vaudeville Revue performed there in February 1942,[49] and Ink Spots and Tiny Bradshaw appeared that December as part of a tour.

[52] The Flushing Keith's continued to prosper after World War II in spite of a decline in New York City's large neighborhood movie palaces during that time.

[65] The LPC designated the interior as a landmark in February 1984, citing it as "one of the few surviving examples in New York of the uniquely American institution of the movie palace".

[69] Queens borough president Donald Manes, a member of the Board of Estimate,[66][60] overturned the designation for the auditorium interior in July 1984, leaving only the foyer and ticket lobby protected.

[74] Huang, a Taiwanese-American developer who had turned Flushing into "New York's second Chinatown" over the preceding decade,[59] intended to repurpose the theater as an office building or a shopping complex.

The Queens Historical Society wrote a letter to the organization's founder, Jerry Rotondi, saying: "The Committee's work to protect a recognized landmark from insensitive development and inappropriate use... [is] very commendable.

[79] Early that March, after most of the auditorium had been demolished, the New York City Department of Buildings issued an order demanding that Huang stop all work on the theater after the inspectors found that three of the landmarked columns in the ticket lobby had been destroyed.

[57] Huang requested the city government's permission to redevelop the site into an office building in February 1990[85] but withdrew his application shortly afterwards.

[21] A local civic group, Coalition for a Planned Flushing, said that the LPC's failure to designate the entire theater as a landmark had reduced its chances of restoration.

[93][94] Huang filed for bankruptcy in 1993[57] and transferred ownership of the theater building the next year to his mother's company, Yeh Realty[59][95] (later RKO Delaware[95]).

[101] Huang was arrested in March 1997 and charged with environmental violations in relation to the RKO Keith's after city officials discovered that he had lied about cleaning up the oil leak in the theater.

[102] By the end of the year, the office of the Attorney General of New York proposed an agreement in which Huang would stabilize the theater and allow a city inspection in exchange for not going to prison.

The agreement included hiring an independent monitor to review the repairs; in addition, Huang had to file a plan for asbestos removal with the DOB.

[98] The next month, a Supreme Court judge fined Huang $5,000 for environmental violations at the RKO Keith's and sentenced him to five years of probation.

[111] Huang sold the theater in 2002 to Boymelgreen, who planned to build the RKO Plaza, a mixed-use development with apartments, retail, restaurants, and a senior center; the ticket lobby and foyer would be preserved.

[60] In February 2004, members of Queens Community Board 7 voted against granting Boymelgreen an exemption to the zoning regulations to enable the addition of condominiums in the RKO Plaza.

[124] The next January, Thompson filed an application with the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals to increase the proposed project to 357 condos and 360 parking spaces.

[115][116] Though the city approved Thompson's plans in July 2011,[125][126][127] the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the next month that the development's height might interfere with planes landing at the nearby LaGuardia Airport.

In addition, Karlik wished to redesign the curtain wall in front of the lobby and increase the building's height to accommodate mechanical space.

[140] The LPC approved Xinyuan's plans for the theater's redevelopment in May 2017, including a proposal to convert the ticket lobby and foyer into a condo entrance.

The Historic Districts Council expressed reservations over the fact that, while the ticket lobby would be open to the public, the grand foyer was planned to be restricted to residents, at least initially.

[12][13] Following the announcement of Xinyuan's revised plans, preservationist and Forest Hills resident Richard Thornhill started a petition to restore the theater to Lamb's original design.