Signature's vision includes demolishing roughly half of the 38-acre site for single-family homes and townhouses. As part of the plan, several buildings fronting San Pablo Avenue would be renovated, including the city's library, a 350-seat community center, a computer-training center, county offices and an ethnic grocer.

Bridgecreek, the developer of Orange County's Little Saigon, purchased El Portal in 1997 and dumped $50 million in renovations in an attempt to turn it into an Asian-Hispanic themed center. The company had hoped to transform the 1970s-era shopping center into a prosperous Vietnamese business district, but it didn't pan out. Bridgecreek also tried unsuccessfully to lure a movie theater and establish a food court in the center's indoor mall.

Signature is not the only developer that has wanted to take another shot at it. Last year, San Jose-based developer Stan Davis offered to pay $8 million in cash for a portion of the complex and Asia Natural Products LLC, a San Francisco-based herb supplier, offered upward of $700,000 for the former Fashion World building on the site. Both deals fell through.