A method of Abdel-Magid et al (J. Org. Chem., 61, 3849, 1996) was used: Glacial AcOH (0.25 ml) was added to a solution of the product of Step 2 (1.46 g, 4.4 mmol), 1H-inden-2(3H)-one (0.46 g, 4.5 mmol) and NaBH(OAc)3 (1.4 g, 6.55 mmol) in anhydrous 1,2-dichloroethane (17 ml). The resulting mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature under N2 and to it more of NaBH(OAc)3 (0.4 g, 1.9 mmol) was added. After 2 h of stirring at room temperature, the mixture was quenched by addition of 1N NaOH aq (5 ml). This was diluted to 60 ml with Et2O and washed with H2O and brine. The organic phase was dried over anhydrous MgSO4, filtered and filtrate evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure. The residue was purified by flash column chromatography (SiO2, CH2Cl2) to give pure product as a creamy solid (1.4 g, 71%). 1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3) δ 7.83 (d, J=9.0 Hz, 1H), 7.34-7.5(m, 5H), 7.12-7.21(m, 4H), 7.05(dd, J=2.6, 9.0 Hz, 1H), 6.49(d, J=2.6 Hz, 1H), 4.17(m, 1H), 4.08(m, 1H), 3.19-3.27(m 2H), 2.73-2.83(m, 2H), 2.7(s, 3H), 1.22(s, 9H).
