Mumbai: Hindustan Construction Company Ltd (HCC) has entered into an agreement with Starwood Hotels and Resorts International to manage its two hotel properties at Lavasa township near Pune.

The company will develop a 250-room hotel with a 150,000 sq ft convention centre in technical collaboration with Starwood on a five-acre plot and a 250-room resort, spread across nearly eight acres along the water-front.

"It is our corporate vision to develop Lavasa as a preferred destination for both business and leisure. The technical and management expertise of Starwood will enable us to provide world-class facilities at Lavasa. With their vast global experience of managing world-class convention centers and resorts around the world, Starwood brings both international best practices as well as a stellar track record," Nicholas Bashkiroff, CEO, Lavasa, said after the signing of the agreement.

Deloitte facilitated the collaboration arrangement.

"Starwood's brand will add significant value to Lavasa as a whole. With a significant encashment area including Mumbai and Pune, Lavasa will quickly develop into a mixed-use destination that will demand quality hotel brands such as in the Starwood basket," said Alex Kyriakidis, global managing partner of Deloitte's hospitality & leisure industry team.

The 12,500-acre Lavasa township around a 20sq-km lake has proximity to both Mumbai and Pune and is conceived as India's first post-Independence hill town.

The township has been planned according to the principles of new urban development.

The township has been master-planned by world-renowned planners Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK). The plan is to develop Lavasa as a world-class, integrated urban and economic centre providing an aspirational lifestyle and facilities where people can live, work, learn and play, in harmony with nature.

The Lavasa project has already won some of the world's most prestigious planning awards from The Congress of New Urbanism, USA and The American Society of Landscape Architects.

HCC Real Estate, a subsidiary of the company, owns 60 per cent of Lavasa.