ABS, Modell sign ground lease valued at $17.2M for office, film studio in Hell’s Kitchen

ABS Partners Real Estate and Randy Modell’s Modell Investment Team through the entity 515 West 57th Street Leasehold LLC signed a 75-year ground lease with Eric Duke through the entity 513-519 West 57th Street, LLC for the office building (O2) at 515 West 57th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. The city valued the lease at $17.2 million.

Eric Duke is the owner of the television production company started by his father Anton Duke, called All Mobile Video, which leases studio space and gear to the film and television production industry, including at this location.
The deal closed on October 22, 2025 and was recorded on October 27, 2025. The property has 46,000 square feet of built space and 59,010 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 105,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The transfer price per built square foot is $375 and the price per buildable square foot is $164 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Eric Duke was Eric Duke. The signatory for ABS Partners Real Estate and Modell Investment Team was Randy Modell. This is a 75-year lease with a purchase option.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer ABS Partners Real Estate had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Eric Duke had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 46,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.2 million or $48 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The office building in Hell’s Kitchen has 46,000 square feet of built space and 59,010 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 105,000 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 100 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 21,000 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $10.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Hell’s Kitchen, The bulk, or 39 percent of the 40.8 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Hell’s Kitchen has 3 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $865.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 12th highest in Manhattan. For development, Hell’s Kitchen has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the nine commercial properties representing 136,052 square feet of the 213,988 square feet. The largest owner is Mcsam Hotel Group, followed by Gene Jiyoon Park and then Scharfman Organization.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 32 percent of the 213,988 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 32 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that ABS Partners Real Estate owned at least six commercial properties with one residential unit in New York City with 140,796 square feet and a city-determined market value of $43.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 83 percent of the 140,796 square feet of built space are office properties, with industrial properties next occupying 14 percent of the space. The bulk, or 56 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 44 percent of the space.

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