The way that Hong Kongers view development has changed sharply in recent years. Residents once virtually worshipped tycoons like Li Ka-shing, the richest person in Asia, who has been called “Superman” for his business prowess. Now they march through the streets to protest the widening wealth gap; the cost of housing that is, by some accounts, the most expensive in the world; and the unseemly interaction of government and business.

Conservation efforts have not been particularly strong in Hong Kong. Property owners would rather tear down old structures and build more expensive residential or office property on the same site. Some buildings from this former British colony’s past have been preserved — like Flagstaff House, the former home of the commander of the British forces; the Central police station; and Western Market, a Victorian-era covered market — but the government traditionally has auctioned off historic buildings, letting the highest bidders recast the structures as they wished.

Then came the renovation of the former marine police headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, a spot right in the heart of tourist territory in Kowloon, near the Star Ferry Terminal, the Peninsula hotel and Hong Kong’s art and space museums.

In 2009, Cheung Kong, a company that Mr. Li named for the Yangtze River, finished turning the sprawling building into a 10-suite hotel with restaurants and luxury shops at its base. The criticism was fierce — and the government decided that future sales of protected buildings would be open only to nonprofit organizations.

So when the Tai O Police Station came up for sale, Daryl Ng, a grandson of the founder of the Hong Kong-Singapore development company Sino Land, established the Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation to transform it into a boutique hotel that still honored the building’s history. The nonprofit foundation in 2009 won the bidding for the station, which had been abandoned since it was closed in 2002. The hotel opened at the end of February this year.