The boarded-up building sat vacant on a tattered block in San Francisco until a small New York developer and a Kuwaiti real estate partner snapped it up in April 2014, attracted by the proximity to Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and other tech companies. Over the next year and a half, New York’s Synapse Development Group worked to win approval to redevelop the 1904 landmark on Market Street into a 203-room hotel run by London-based Yotel.