The building was acquired by new owners in 1999 and Landmark negotiated a $3,000-per-month lease to continue in the space. According to the new owners, Landmark later requested a reduction in rent to $1,500 per month and asked to make the property owners responsible for the entire cost of seismic retrofits. The theater closed in March 2001 after Landmark—now owned by Silver Cinemas, Inc.—decided to pull out of the space rather than spend its half of the $500,000 needed for seismic upgrades required for the unreinforced masonry building in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (the UC was designed and built in 1916 to 1917, preceding the 1933 California ban on unreinforced masonry buildings). The UC had been "marginally profitable" prior to its closure due to low attendance, and the theater had switched to weeklong runs rather than daily rotations in the fall of 2000.