The Fleet: Downtown Brooklyn’s Five-Building, 450-Unit Rental Complex
The Fleet’s five interconnected buildings are complete and leasing. Market-rate leasing began in June 2026, the same month NYC Housing Connect opened a lottery for 20 income-restricted units at 80% of area median income. The 450-unit complex is now fully operating across studio-to-three-bedroom layouts, with monthly rents starting around $6,225.
Current View
The completed building, via New York brokerage REAL New York’s “Building of the Month” feature:
At a Glance
- The Fleet is a 450-unit rental complex in Downtown Brooklyn, built as five legally separate but physically interconnected buildings across a 6-parcel assemblage spanning three streets.
- Developer The Jay Group deliberately kept each building at or under 99 units — a now-common citywide pattern to avoid New York’s $40-an-hour construction wage floor, which kicks in at 100 units.
- Twenty units are reserved as income-restricted affordable housing, allocated through a June 2026 NYC Housing Connect lottery.
- Construction wrapped by midsummer 2026; the building is now fully complete and leasing, with an extensive amenity package spread across the rooftop and lower floors.
A Tower Built as Five Buildings
The Fleet occupies a 39,000-square-foot, six-parcel assemblage in Downtown Brooklyn, addressed across five separate street numbers: 104 and 106 Fleet Place, 163 and 165 Willoughby Street, and 283 Flatbush Avenue Extension. Developer The Jay Group and architect JFA Architects & Engineers designed it as one physically interconnected 30-story complex, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a black-paneled facade broken up by an irregular white accent pattern.
The complex totals 450 rental units, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms, with interiors finished in warm herringbone wood flooring, integrated paneled dishwashers, in-unit washers and dryers, and central HVAC; select units include private outdoor space.
Why It’s Five Buildings, Not One
The five-address structure isn’t an accident of the assemblage — it’s a deliberate legal and financial strategy. New York’s 485-x tax incentive program, which replaced the expired 421-a abatement, requires developers of buildings with 100 or more units to pay construction workers a minimum of roughly $40 an hour. Projects under that threshold face no such wage floor.
The Real Deal reported in September 2024 that The Jay Group was dividing its Downtown Brooklyn assemblage into multiple separately filed buildings specifically to stay under that line — 104 Fleet Place itself was filed at 99 residences, one unit short of triggering the higher wage requirement.
The Fleet is not an isolated case. Bloomberg has documented a citywide wave of “99-unit buildings” built for the same reason, including a separate, unrelated Downtown Brooklyn project a few blocks away at 485 Fulton Street and 147-149 Lawrence Street, and BKX’s own developers have flagged the same pattern nearby — see Hush Street’s Living Project Page on BKX. Critics of the practice argue it produces less efficient buildings — duplicate stairwells, trash rooms, and elevators across multiple structures instead of one larger one — purely to avoid the wage mandate; supporters of the 485-x wage floor counter that it ensures construction workers on large residential projects are paid a living wage.
Amenities and Public Space
The Fleet’s amenity package is unusually large for its footprint, spread across a rooftop level and several interior floors. The rooftop includes a resort-style pool, an outdoor jacuzzi, a fire pit lounge, an outdoor cinema, grilling and dining areas, and landscaped seating.
Indoors, residents have access to a fitness center, a yoga and wellness studio, a sauna and steam room, an indoor rock-climbing wall, a pickleball court, a media lounge with a screening room and VR/game room, a coworking lounge, a residents’ dining room with a chef’s kitchen, a children’s playroom, a dog-washing station, and an attended lobby with doorman service, package room, bike storage, and an on-site parking garage.
Affordable Units and Leasing
Twenty of The Fleet’s 450 units are reserved as income-restricted affordable housing, allocated through a lottery that NYC Housing Connect opened in June 2026 for households earning around 80% of area median income. Market-rate leasing for the remaining units began the same month, with listed rents starting around $6,225 a month for a studio.
Construction wrapped by midsummer 2026, and the complex is now fully complete and operating.
Timeline
The Real Deal reports that The Jay Group is dividing its Downtown Brooklyn assemblage into multiple buildings, each kept under 100 units, to avoid New York's 485-x construction wage floor.
The five-building, 30-story complex is fully built and enclosed.
Market-rate leasing begins the same month NYC Housing Connect opens the lottery for 20 income-restricted units at 80% of area median income.
New York YIMBY reports the 450-unit complex nearing full completion.
The Fleet is listed as completed on major listing platforms, with active availability across studio to three-bedroom units.
Location
The Fleet sits at the edge of Downtown Brooklyn near Fort Greene, a short walk from the Barclays Center and the Atlantic Terminal transit hub. View on Google Maps.
Sources
Sources: New York YIMBY (completion); New York YIMBY (affordable lottery); The Real Deal (wage-floor strategy); Bloomberg (citywide 99-unit pattern); NYC Housing Connect; CityRealty; The Fleet (official site, amenities/unit detail).
Hush Street Editorial researches and reports on the projects, permits, and physical changes reshaping Brooklyn — and, more broadly, New York City. Reporting draws on primary-source city records — Department of Buildings filings, land-use and planning applications, agency and community-board documents — verified and cross-checked against independent reporting where it exists. Coverage is continuously updated as new filings and decisions are recorded, and confirmed facts are distinguished from open questions.
