J. sent the first look as the curtain was literally pulled back on the new addition to 50 Hudson, on the corner of Thomas. What a stunner!

As J. said, looking at it from above: “What an amazing surface. Glass bricks but not too reflective. Has a gotham feel to it. I am excited to see it at night.”

Construction first started here five years ago, in October 2021, on the former paper factory — built in 1925. The late Tribecan and architect Thierry Despont designed an addition of three extra floors — only two are visible from the street — approved in the second iteration by Landmarks in 2017. It was then sold last year, according to the Commercial Observer, to George Yancopoulos, co-founder of the biotech company Regeneron. He purchased five commercial condo units and one residential unit (almost the whole building) through the entity GLT Hudson Holdings, paying $32.2 million all-in to previous owner Eric Schlagman.

The ground floor had J. Crew for years, and until recently The Lotus Method in its retail space; the listing said then that the lower floors are leased to commercial tenants.

The new structure adds 8200 square feet to the commercial building and the height of the facade went from 38 feet to 59, according to DOB records.

When the plans were first shown to the Landmarks Commission in July 2017, they thought it was *too* contextual — they asked that it be more of a departure from the historic part of the building. Despont obliged and it got glassier: the second iteration, approved later that year, removed the set-back, removed the greenery at the setback and made the addition a smidge taller and added glass at the corners and on the parapet.