Massachusetts Institute of Technology has agreed to pay $750 million for the 14-acre Volpe Center site in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, which it plans to redevelop into a large commercial and residential campus.

Final designs hinge upon future rezoning of the site by Cambridge city councilors. MIT said the project could include the following elements suggested as part of a recent city planning study:

• New housing, including a mix of affordable, moderate and market-rate units.
• New commercial office and laboratory space, including innovation space for startups, small companies and individuals.
• Ground-floor retail or public-facing venues in most of the buildings along primary streets.
• New open spaces for public gathering and recreation.
• Roads and paths through the block that establish new connections between East Cambridge, the Kendall/MIT MBTA station and the Charles River.
• Sustainability features that address climate change and promote resiliency.

The federal government in June requested proposals from a group of developers to redevelop the site, which contains six office buildings totaling 375,000 square feet occupied by the U.S. Department of Transportation and surface parking. The developer will be required to rebuild a “state-of-the-art” facility for the transportation department along with the new development. The second phase could begin as soon as 2021, according to a statement by Israel Ruiz, MIT’s executive vice president and treasurer. The $750 million bid reflects the cost of the land as well as construction of the new federal building.

The General Services Administration selected MIT as its preferred developer for the site at 55 Broadway in November. The site could accommodate 3 million square feet of development, according to a study by HR&A Advisors submitted to the city of Cambridge in 2015.

The new transportation building will occupy 4 acres, MIT said today. MIT will acquire the remainder of the property for commercial buildings, residential and retail space following construction of the federal building.

MIT is already preparing to build a 1.8 million-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment of 8 acres that it owns in Kendall Square off Main Street. That project, which received final city approval in May, will replace parking lots and several university buildings will new office and lab space, apartments and retail space.