You'll have a much more enjoyable commuter bike if you try to reduce the weight. 50 lbs. is really heavy, and I assume that is with all your gear. Try leaving heavy things at work, like shoes, locks, spares, tools. Figure out what you absolutely need for the ride and leave the rest.

A prior commuter bike of mine had a cheap suspension fork that weighed a ton, and was swapped out for a rigid fork. For the MVT or 4MRT, a suspension fork is completely unnecessary. You can get an aftermarket steel fork from Surly that has disc tabs for less than $100. 2.3" tires are way more than you need and probably add a couple lbs.

Here is my bike that weighs in at 27 lbs. unloaded.