An outline of a synthetic route to the antibiotic resistomycin is presented. We report the successful construction of an intermediate containing all of the carbon atoms in resistomycin with requisite functionalities. The key steps involved an aldol type condensation of the dianion from 2,4,6-trimethoxybenzoylacetone and a suitable acetophenone. This was followed by a novel acid-catalyzed cyclization–condensation to form the naphthalene intermediate required in our scheme.