When Nasrin Vossoughian bought a three-bedroom condominium at Schaefer Landing, a residential project built on the site of a former brewery, she knew change was coming to gritty South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But she had no idea how much. That was in the early 2000s, before the rezoned waterfront was lined with gymnastic towers and its most prominent feature, the Domino Sugar Factory, was remade into a four-million-square-foot multiuse complex that is still under construction.

Ms. Vossoughian and her husband were living in upstate Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y., at the time, and bought the property as an investment. (She declined to say what they paid, but units were originally priced up to $1.9 million.)

After she was widowed, she moved into the condo for a change of scene and to be close to her Brooklyn grandchildren. “I had enough of the country,” she said. Sitting on a bench in the new Domino Park, with its sublime views of the Manhattan skyline and tributes to the sugar-refining industry — syrup tanks, gantry cranes — she talked about the pleasure of walking to increasingly profuse neighborhood shops and restaurants, and boarding a ferry just outside her door for the 20-minute trip to Lower Manhattan.

If Ms. Vossoughian felt any sense of disconnect in this new environment, she said, it was because of her age: She is now 70. She was contrasting herself not just against the stereotypical skin-ornamented and creatively self-employed Williamsburg hipster, but also against the affluent young families pouring into the neighborhood.