44,000 sq ft facility is designed to serve the needs of content creators in a changing media landscape
“At AbelCine, we support filmmakers and content producers in all their creative and business endeavors. We do this by offering a range of services focused on gear, support and learning,” said Pete Abel, CEO of AbelCine. “This combination of technology, innovation, and creativity is also central to Industry City. With a healthy mix of artists, designers, media producers, and makers, we immediately recognized that IC was our natural home.”
“AbelCine is a key component to the film and media ecosystem that continues to grow at Industry City,” said Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball. “The company’s commitment to the industry through innovation and ongoing education fit well with the ethos of the vibrant Industry City campus.”
The vision for AbelCine’s 44,000 sq ft New York flagship location was developed by Rich Abel, AbelCine’s Co-founder and COO, and Liz McGill, AbelCine’s Creative Director. The concept for the facility’s layout was to create a physical space that reimagines how creatives work and interact.
The design provides industry creatives seamless access to gear, support and education. The floorplan eliminates physical barriers between these services as much as possible – just as AbelCine does in their business model. Visitors enter into a large interactive showroom, with sales, rental, tech services and training easily accessible from this central area. There is plenty of community space where creatives and technical experts can meet and share ideas, also a core tenet of AbelCine’s philosophy.
Highlights of the new facility, include:
- Large, interactive sales showroom of professional cameras, lenses, accessories, audio, lighting and expendables
- Spacious rental check-out bays with amenities for large and small productions
- State-of-the-art maintenance and service center for cameras, lenses and ancillaries
- 107-seat training theater equipped with 4K projection, a 15-foot screen, 7.1 surround sound and multi-camera live switch / live stream broadcast capabilities
- Multi-purpose rooms for custom training and technical consultations
- Lounge and community area for special events and informal gatherings
- Engineering lab and machine room for product design, prototyping and manufacturing
- Integration area for design, building, and staging of broadcast, live stream and studio solutions
- The First CineMakers exhibit, featuring some of the earliest motion picture cameras, coming in 2018
Early in the design process, Rich Abel and Liz McGill decided to bring elements of Industry City’s rich history as a turn-of-the-century manufacturing center into the design aesthetic. The resulting iron and glass architectural appointments are juxtaposed against AbelCine’s digital production gear and high-tech services. A wrought iron grate above the Tech Services counter was fabricated by Industry City’s ATH Studios from materials salvaged from the original IC warehouses. The showroom display tables and unique oval reception desk were designed in collaboration with Ivory Build, a custom woodworking shop located in Industry City. For conference rooms, offices, and the community lounge, lighting fixtures were chosen that are elegantly industrial, including a number made by Rail Road Ware from upcycled antique glass electrical insulators.
AbelCine’s theater and other spaces are available to rent for private industry events, screenings, training classes, and community events. For more information on AbelCine and its new Industry City flagship, visit www.abelcine.com.
About AbelCine
AbelCine, established in 1989, is a full-service equipment and technology provider to the broadcast, production, and media industries. The company’s services, designed to support customers through every stage of the production cycle, include: equipment sales and rental, training and consultation, tech services and integration, financing and assurance programs. AbelCine has flagship locations in Burbank, CA and Brooklyn, NY; a Learning Point in Chicago, IL serves the Midwestern region.
About Industry City
Industry City is a 6 million-square-foot mixed-use complex comprised of 16 buildings spanning 35 acres situated on the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The property’s ownership – led by Belvedere Capital, Jamestown, and Angelo Gordon & Co. – is transforming the complex, while cultivating a diverse tenant mix that fuses today’s burgeoning innovation economy with traditional manufacturing and artisanal craft. To date, the transformation has included over $250 million of infrastructure improvements, the addition of destination courtyards, experience-driven dining, retail and other amenitization and event programing. This work is paving the way toward a vibrant and diverse community of forward-thinking companies that support good-paying jobs for workers across skill and experience levels. Since the new partnership was forged in August 2013, businesses based at Industry city have grown by an average of 100 jobs per month, increasing employment from 1,900 jobs in 2013 to more than 6,500 jobs today. www.industrycity.com
