Et tu, Harlem?
Fifth Avenue is typically associated with Manhattan luxury, but its only recent that the ritzy road still evokes such cachet all the way up in Harlem. Joining multi-million-dollar condos and an office building home to good old ex-President Bill Clinton are two new luxury hotels: one 19 stories high at 125th Street, boasting as many as 260 rooms as well as banquet and meeting space; and one at 124th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard where an Associated supermarket once stood, possibly baring the [reputation of the W Hote]l. The former project, undertaken by New Jersey-based Reisman Properties, will be designed by [Handel Architects](http://www.ajrginc.com/flash/index.html), a firmt hat worked on both the [Trump Soho Hotel](http://www.nypress.com/blogx/display_blog.cfm?bid=88652108) and the Ritz-Carlton, Downtown. The New York Observer reports that expenses will reach [upwards of $80 million](http://www.observer.com/2007/harlem-get-first-luxury-hotel).
Meanwhile, Harlems Copelands Restaurant on 145th Street will be [shuttering its doors for good] in less than a weeks time. Calvin Copeland, 82, has been dishing out soul food uptown for 50 years, and make no mistakes, this is no hole in the wall: the eatery was a favorite amongst stars like Stevie Wonder, Harry Belafonte and Sammy Davis Jr.; and it catered events featuring former mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch and Congressman Charles Rangel. And yet, Copeland blames its closing on, you guessed it, [gentrification](http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F40D12FC39550C708EDDAE0894DF404482), as well as an influx of Hispanic residents and restaurants and the typical lack of parking. If you havent tried it, Sundays brunch[dubbed The Last Supper](http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2007/07/23/2007-07-23_heart_soul_of_harlem_dining_saying_farew.html)is your only chance.
All this and [Manhattanville](../../../../../blogx/display_blog.cfm?bid=8969870&day=19&startmonth=6&startyear=2007) is still in the design phases.