Imagine investing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the late 1990s—when Polish, Ukrainians, Hassidic Jews, and Puerto Rican immigrants predated the hipsters. Prospective renters had two peculiar choices: a paper-thin-wall Polish-built working-class house in Greenpoint or a raw warehouse without heating. Barreiro is rather Williamsburg in 2005. Same flavour of real estate expansion among the charm of its industrial remains.

Photography Claudine Boeglin