THE long-awaited deal for Oxford’s new £400m Westgate Centre – including a John Lewis store and a multi-screen cinema – was signed yesterday.

John Lewis’ three-storey store will provide the centrepiece of the new shopping centre, which will create 2,650 jobs.

A planning application is to be submitted this autumn, with building work due to start next year for a Christmas 2017 opening. The new centre will be largely open air. A two-storey basement car park with 1,100 spaces will replace the existing multi-storey Westgate car park. That will be demolished.

David Edwards, city council executive director for regeneration, said the new Westgate would be an improvement on large-scale covered shopping malls of the past.

John Lewis will be built on the southern edge of the Westgate extension, on the site of the existing car park, and will front on to Thames Street as well as into the new centre.

With 100,000sq ft of selling space, it will be similar in size to Oxford’s Marks & Spencer store in Queen Street. The medium-sized store alone will create 500 new jobs.

The cinema will be on the first and second floors with plans for a roof terrace offering views of Oxford.

But much of the existing Westgate structure will not be demolished as proposed previously.

Instead there will be extensive recladding and a new entrance to both the shopping centre and the neighbouring library.

The Westgate Alliance, a joint venture between The Crown Estate and Land Securities Group, signed a 250-year lease deal with the council, to upgrade the 40-year-old shopping centre.

Lester Hampson, head of retail development for Land Securities, said the Westgate would be transformed into one of the UK’s leading shopping and entertainment destinations.

Four separate firms of architects will be working on the scheme.

Mr Edwards said: “Different architects will work on the scheme, because we didn’t want a shopping centre where everything looks the same. There will be public squares, with significant provision of public space.”

Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis, said: “Oxford has long been a sought-after location for us and we’re delighted to be able to expand our reach to customers across the region for the first time.” He said the store would include a café and customer collection entrance in a new basement car park.

He added the store would offer fashion, home wares and electronics.

Ian Hudspeth, leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said last night: “It’s great news.

“We look forward to working with the alliance over the coming months to develop the detail of their proposal.”

The city council said decisions on the sensitive issue of the height of buildings were still to be made.

Overall the scheme will provide 72,468m sq of extra shopping space and 5,730 m sq for leisure on first and second floors.

Thirty affordable homes will also be included in the scheme.

The development is set to kickstart major changes to transport in the city, with plans to close Norfolk Street and reroute buses through Thames Street and Abbey Place.

It is envisaged that the work will provide at least 1,550 jobs during construction.

A public consultation on outline planning will start next month.

With the existing 1,122 space car park to be demolished, the city plans to provide a temporary car park during construction in Oxpens.

It is understood the former Abbey Place car park and the site of part of Oxford & Cherwell Valley College’s Oxpens campus – demolished several years ago when preliminary work for a more ambitious redevelopment started – will be included in the new scheme.