One of Hudson Square’s last big parking lots is on the verge of a serious glow up, as billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings teams with MAG Partners on a new rental tower at 122 Varick Street, catty-corner from Disney’s gleaming downtown campus.
The plan: roughly 149 apartments across about 192,000 square feet, with around one quarter of those units locked in as permanently affordable housing. The site is currently a plain old surface lot, which is about as low-key as it gets in a neighborhood that has been steadily trading loading docks for production studios.
What’s Planned At 122 Varick
The joint venture is planning a ground-up rental building with approximately 149 apartments, about 192,000 square feet of total space, and roughly 5,000 square feet of retail at street level, according to Connect CRE. Reporting says about 25 percent of the homes would be permanently affordable through New York’s new 485-x tax incentive program. The project was first flagged this week by CoStar.
Deal Structure And Partners
Global Holdings and MAG Partners have formed a joint venture and will control the site through a long-term ground lease with Trinity Church, with Kevin Donner of Cushman & Wakefield representing Trinity in the transaction, Commercial Observer reports.
MaryAnne Gilmartin, founder of MAG Partners, described Trinity as an “exceptional partner” and pointed out that “when your ground lessor has stewarded this land for three centuries, you don’t build for the cycle, you build for the ages,” according to the outlet. The deal extends an already active partnership between MAG Partners and Global Holdings on Manhattan developments.
From Office Scheme To Housing
Not long ago, 122 Varick was pitched as a boutique office project. MAG Partners’ own project page previously described the site as a 175,000 square foot office building designed by COOKFOX Architects, a reminder of how quickly plans can pivot when the market does. The same page notes that the lot, at the corner of Dominick Street, currently operates as a surface parking lot, hinting at the visible changes in store for the block. MAG Partners continues to maintain that project listing.
Why Hudson Square Matters
Hudson Square has been steadily recast as a media and creative district, and housing is starting to follow the cameras. The most high-profile example is The Walt Disney Company’s new downtown campus, which consolidated ABC, ESPN and other operations in a single complex completed in 2024, according to project materials from SOM. Construction updates archived by Field Condition show the complex, commonly referred to as 7 Hudson Square or the Robert A. Iger Building, locking in the neighborhood’s media-heavy identity.
That proximity is already a selling point for the 122 Varick venture, which will quite literally sit in Disney’s line of sight.
What Comes Next
Reporting indicates the project will lean on New York’s 485-x program, with ground-floor retail slated to include a Serafina Mare location that is expected to open in the fall 2026 season, per Commercial Observer.
The 485-x tax incentive provides property tax exemptions for projects that include affordable housing and is designed to boost new residential construction across the city, according to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
No construction timeline has surfaced in initial reporting, so the next clues will come when filings hit city agencies for entitlements and building permits. For now, Hudson Square neighbors just know their local parking lot is living on borrowed time.
