Mapletree has continued a run of leasing success at its Green Park office campus in Reading, signing government research and manufacturing body Atomic Weapons Establishment for all of the 67,280-square-foot 250 Brook Drive, CoStar News can reveal.
The letting, one of the largest in the South East this year, comes six months after CoStar News revealed Mapletree had secured global consulting and engineering company Wood for a 120,000-square-foot office at the park with a proposed relocation of its workforce from nearby Shinfield Park to 400 Longwater Avenue in August this year.
AWE is a Ministry of Defence research facility responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK's nuclear weapons. Its work takes place principally at facilities in Aldermaston and Burghfield.
An AWE spokesperson confirmed in a statement: “As part of the company’s Building a Better Workplace programme, we will be opening a modern office space at Green Park, Reading, Berkshire. We expect to begin populating this from the end of 2024. The programme will enable the company to recruit and retain the top skills and talent to support its unique mission, drawn from a diverse range of thinking and backgrounds. Creating a decentralised enterprise of hubs and satellites enables AWE to work better with supply chain, academia, and government partners, while also delivering socio-economic value to regional communities across the UK.”
Charles Dady, head of National office leasing at Cushman & Wakefield, joint agents with Campbell Gordon for Mapletree at Green Park, said “We are delighted to have leased 250 Brook Drive in its entirety shortly after practical completion of the 67,2800square-foot building and look forward to welcoming AWE as a new occupier to Green Park. It’s further evidence that major occupiers are taking the best quality space available.”
Singapore's Mapletree completed its 100% acquisition of Green Park from Oxford Properties for around £563 million in May 2016. It pressed on with the speculative development of 400 and 450 Longwater Avenue in 2019.
The 195-acre business park comprises 1.4 million square feet of offices across 19 buildings.
Cushman & Wakefield and Campbell Gordon advise Mapletree at Green Park, with quoting rents at 400 Longwater Avenue around £40 per square foot. Savills advised AWE.