With the optimized reaction condition in hand, the scope of the reaction was evaluated concerning the benzocycloheptane motifs by performing reactions with aryl β-keto esters. As illustrated in Table 2a, a broad range of aryl-substituted β-keto esters, regardless of the positions and electronic properties of the substituents on the phenyl ring were perfectly compatible with the reaction condition, affording the corresponding products in moderate to excellent yields (3a-3l). 1-indanone derived substrates with methyl groups at the C4, C5, and C6 positions on the benzene ring are all compatible with the condition (3d, 3h and 3k). The relative configuration of 3k was rigorously confirmed by X-ray crystallography. Remarkably, 1-indanone derived substrates with additional functionalities were all shown to be tolerated by this protocol. For example, a wide range of functional groups on the substrate, such as methoxy (3b and 3j), chloro (3l), bromo (3f), fluoro (3c), and trifluoromethyl (3g) remained intact toward the transformation into the corresponding products. More interestingly, when the challenging dimethyl substitution located at the aliphatic position of 1-indanones was employed, the desired product (3m) was still able to be afforded in an acceptable yields.