A Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. joint venture has won a $355 million contract to renovate South L.A.’s troubled Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center, which stopped inpatient services in 2007 after a series of patient deaths.

The Pasadena construction company on Tuesday said the contract was awarded to MLK Partners, a joint venture of Jacobs, Jenkins/Gales & Martinez and Jensen and Partners.

The project includes gutting and remodeling the inpatient tower, as well as building a 130,000-square-foot multi-service ambulatory care center. The tower renovation is expected to be finished in early 2013, with construction of the ambulatory care center to start later that year.

The county shut down all but an outpatient clinic at MLK three years ago following an investigation of pervasive patient safety problems attributed to negligence and poor management. Last year, the county entered into a partnership with UCLA to reopen and manage inpatient services at a scaled-down version of the hospital. Other parts of the campus eventually will be made available for use by healthcare-related services and private life science start-ups in an initiative to redevelop the surrounding Willlowbrook community.

Separately, Jacobs announced three, three-year contracts from London utility company National Grid to manage gas infrastructure improvements in the United Kingdom. Terms were not disclosed.

Shares were down 51 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $38.37 in midday trading in the New York Stock Exchange.