Alok Sharma, the Member of Parliament for Reading West, has attended the Topping Out Ceremony at Green Park’s latest phase of development at 400 and 450 Longwater Avenue. 

During the visit, Alok was taken on a guided tour of the new development along with architects, developers and industry experts who explained the progress of the building site and outlined the next steps. As part of the tour, Alok was invited to plant a tree on the roof of the development. Alok was also joined at the event by the enthusiastic pupils of Whitley Park Primary School, who helped plant a sapling tree as part of the Topping Out Ceremony.

With a 1.4 million sq ft of office space, Green Park is one of the UK’s leading business parks and this year it will be celebrating its 21st birthday. The latest development at Green Park, owned by Mapletree Investments, totals 233,988 sq ft of Grade A office space. With Green Park Station due for completion in 2021, commuters will soon start benefiting from the new station which will provide a direct link to Reading station and Crossrail services.

After the tour, Alok gave a brief speech outlining the benefits of new development at Green Park and its wider contribution to the Thames Valley area. 

Alok Sharma, Member of Parliament for Reading West, said: “I was delighted to attend the Topping Out Ceremony at Green Park’s latest phase of development, along with enthusiastic pupils of Whitley Park Primary School. Investment by international investors such as Mapletree demonstrates a huge vote of confidence in Reading and the British economy more widely. I look forward to returning to the site once it is completed in the Autumn.”

Rory Carson, Mapletree’s Vice President of Asset Management in the UK, said: “We are delighted that the Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP and the pupils from Whitley Park Primary School could join us for the topping out ceremony at 400 & 450 Longwater Avenue.  Once the two new buildings are completed in the Autumn, the total amount of office space will increase to approximately 1.6 million sq ft, providing capacity for a further 2,500 people to join the Green Park business community. Ready for occupation in Autumn 2020, 400 & 450 Longwater Avenue will provide a total of 233,988 sq ft of grade A, column free space over five floors, surrounded by bio-diverse landscaped grounds overlooking Longwater Lake. This latest development underpins Green Park’s ethos of providing an occupier-centric approach in all that we do, with the building designs having been accredited by the WELL Building Institute.  In addition, they are expected to achieve a BREEAM Excellent certification.”