Three practices are expected to find out as early as today who has won a prized deal to take over from Foster & Partners on the scheme to rebuild the Rossiya Hotel on the edge of Moscow’s Red Square.

Teams from Woods Bagot, KPF and Swanke Hayden Connell all jetted into the Russian capital earlier this week ahead of final interviews with the Moscow city government.

Foster’s was appointed to masterplan the £500 million development back in April 2006 but the firm is no longer working on the deal after the developer ran into problems with its financing.

The scheme was being bankrolled by Russian oil and property tycoon, Shalva Chigirinsky, who was estimated to be worth $2.8 billion in 2008 but reportedly lost most of it following the collapse of the country’s property market.

Building work had been due to begin in summer 2007 after the demolition of the hotel, built in 1967, was completed earlier that year.

The revised masterplan will involve building four five-star hotels, along with hundreds of high-class apartments and a concert hall- replacing a 2,500-seat venue that was torn down along with the rest of the complex.

The final three bidders were chosen after a longlist of around 20 firms was whittled down ahead of a final shortlist being drawn up a few months ago.

One said: “We’ve been told that they’re going to pick a winner by the time we leave. This is a really exciting scheme. It’s the equivalent of building next to Whitehall and St James’s Park in London.”

The development will be on the eastern end of Red Square with the Kremlin and the Moscow River just a stone’s throw away.

Swanke Hayden Connell is the only one of the three practices to have an office in Moscow, with the Woods Bagot and KPF bids being run out of London. However, it is expected that the latter two will have to set up some sort of an office in the Russian capital if either of them wins.

Finance is being provided by the city government and a private developer.

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