And Mill Basin, Mr. Fleisher noted, has something else few other New York neighborhoods can boast of: no alternate-side parking.

What You’ll Find

A mitten-shape peninsula, Mill Basin extends northwest to Avenue U, southwest to Flatbush Avenue, northeast to East 66th Street and east, southeast and south to Jamaica Bay.

City planning maps label the area Mill Island, alluding to its previous incarnation as detached marshland. But the neighborhood has been called Mill Basin ever since the 1960s, when it was developed in its current form, said Dorothy Turano, the district manager of Brooklyn Community Board 18, of which Mill Basin is a part. Though some maps indicate Avenue T as the northwest border, the blocks between Avenues U and T are considered part of a neighborhood known as Old Mill Basin.

Recent years have brought Russians, Israelis, Orthodox Jews and Asians to the largely Italian-American community. “You have a very strong family element as well as strong wealth,” said Ian Girshek, an associate of Jaime R. Williams, the State Assembly member who represents District 59, which includes Mill Basin. As the many working-class residents who owned properties there reach retirement age, he added, they are selling to “a very eclectic crowd.”

Much of the neighborhood looks as if it is zoned for museums, embassies and castles, but such buildings are in fact single-family homes. Notorious among them is a fortresslike waterfront compound at 2458 National Drive owned by Galina Anisimova, the ex-wife of a billionaire Russian developer and aluminum tycoon. When the estate, which has a 14,000-square-foot main house and 7,800-square-foot guesthouse, was listed at $30 million four years ago, it was the highest price ever asked for a Brooklyn residence. Never sold, the property returned to the market this month, priced at $18 million.