Under the deal, Jesus will acquire the freehold of the Wesley House site which will allow it to pursue its plans to develop the western end of its site.
The College sold the site to the Methodist Church in 1922. It had previously been occupied by a row of lodging houses fronting the College stables, which had been made redundant by the advent of the motor car.
The College intends to establish an outward-facing Research Centre, which will make use of a state-of-the-art communications facility and a new 150 seat auditorium.
Jesus will also relocate its student social facilities to the Wesley House site and create a new café-bar to the north while retaining residential rooms and flats together with meeting and dining rooms
Wesley House will lease back the eastern part of the site and redevelop itself as a postgraduate institution focusing on the international market. It will continue to provide a Wesleyan community of prayer and study and a Methodist presence in the Cambridge Theological Federation. Wesley House has received planning permission for a new academic gatehouse building, library and archive centre designed by Cowper Griffith with a new student accommodation block at the rear of the site due to be completed by autumn 2015.
The Master of Jesus College, Professor Ian White, said: “We are delighted that the chance has arisen to restore the College site to its original boundaries, and excited by the opportunity it brings to take the facilities we can offer students, alumni and the wider world to a new level of excellence.”
Professor Judith Lieu, Chair of the Trustees at Wesley House, said: "We are now able to move forward with the new vision for Wesley House’s activities, and welcome the opportunities created by closer ties with Jesus College. Wesley House will be able to continue its founders’ vision of being a place of research and scholarship for members of the Methodist tradition alongside its partners in the Cambridge Theological Federation."
Niall McLaughlin Architects has won the limited competition for the Jesus College refurbishment, the first phase of which will be completed in Autumn 2015.
Jesus College and Wesley House, the Methodist theological college on Jesus Lane, have today exchanged contracts on a major property transaction - the largest in Jesus College's history since its foundation in 1496.
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