But if an old-time air pervades, the neighborhood is also adding massive new towers, courtesy of the Essex Crossing mega-project. With nine sites and 1,079 apartments to be built in phases, the project, from the team of BFC Partners, L and M Development Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, will swell the low-rise area’s housing stock.

People looking to move soon might focus on the project’s 145 Clinton Street, a 15-story tower designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, where 107 of 211 units will be market-rate. Leasing begins this summer at the building, which is to open in October. In 2018, the Essex Street Market will also get a new 40,000-square-foot home in the project.

Mr. Gannon’s new one-bedroom on Orchard will be more expensive, at $3,200 a month, than the $2,200 he paid in Williamsburg. But “the fact that there is a lot going on” in his new neighborhood, he said, “compares favorably.”

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Starting in April 2019, L trains will stop running between Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, but will continue to serve other Brooklyn stops to the east. The L is going offline to allow the repair of century-old tunnels damaged by Hurricane Sandy, a $477 million project.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has not yet announced what kinds of alternative services might be offered, but at least one affected agent says he’s optimistic.

“The L train will get us to work harder, but it will not beat us,” said Andrew Barrocas, the chief executive of MNS, which is about to open a new Williamsburg rental building, the 554-unit Level at 2 North Sixth Place. The building, from Douglaston Development, near the Bedford Avenue L train stop, will probably run shuttle buses to the Marcy stop of the J, M and Z trains, he said.

“Renters are not opposed to be taking multiple trains to get to work,” Mr. Barrocas added. “A lot of them were transferring anyway at Union Square.”