New York City has a history of reinventing industrial neighborhoods as luxury enclaves.

But the north side of Greenpoint, Brooklyn — which once cranked out ships, boilers, sheet metal, vinyl siding, pencils, rope and refined oil — may have the most work cut out for it. Shrugging off a legacy of pollution and overlooking the area’s scruffiness, developers in recent years have focused their efforts in the area, which nuzzles up against Newtown Creek and the East River at the northwest tip of Brooklyn.

The latest apartment building to arrive is One Blue Slip, a 30-story, high-end rental from the developer Brookfield Property Partners, in partnership with Park Tower Group. Part of Greenpoint Landing, a 22-acre, $1 billion mixed-use waterfront project that plans 10 buildings and 5,500 units over a decade, One Blue Slip is the first market-rate apartment building to rise at the site. With 359 apartments, it’s also one of the biggest wagers yet on a turnaround for a long-neglected area that could appeal to renters squeezed out of another once-rundown waterfront neighborhood: Williamsburg.

“It’s a neighborhood with a unique blend of grit and charm,” said Gary E. Handel, the founding partner of Handel Architects, which designed One Blue Slip and other Greenpoint Landing residences; he also created the project’s master plan, about a decade ago. “And that character has been generated by an industrial past.”