Raymond will oversee Starwood Capital's development activities and related resort and condo and hotel investment, company officials say. It is also anticipated that Raymond will help build a "leading development and marketing company" for Starwood's planned resort communities as well as establish a condo/hotel operating arm.

"The launch of Starwood Development will allow us to better manage our extensive development projects and realize our future ambitions on behalf of our investor partners," says Starwood Capital's chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht says. "Gary is a visionary leader who, in his 20 years at Intrawest, has led the development of some of the best known and best executed resort communities in the world such as Whistler, Tremblant, Stratton and now the re-development of Snowmass. His expertise in this area will be a tremendous resource for our future projects."

Raymond has worked at Intrawest for the past 21 years. Since 1989, he led Intrawest's entire resort development program. Under his leadership, Intrawest's real estate development operations built more than 10,000 resort residential units and 600,000 sf of commercial space. Prior to joining Intrawest, Raymond served as vice president of finance of Blackcomb Mountain, which Intrawest acquired in 1986. Starwood Capital has acquired a portfolio totaling more than $9 billion in real estate assets since its founding in 1991.