'Manhattanville' revels in new up-market status.

The apartment building has a marble lobby with new chandeliers. Apartments offer magnificent views. A luxurious penthouse sits atop the structure.

A Park Avenue developer's dream? No, it's actually a renovated apartment building in Hamilton Heights.

In the last 10 years, considering the lofty costs of Manhattan real estate, investors have focused more intently than ever on Hamilton and Washington Heights, according to M. Luca Capin, a real estate investment adviser, whose firm Capin & Associates focuses primarily on Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Harlem and the Bronx.

"What is happening in Washington Heights is mind-boggling," Capin said. "Not only individual investors--but institutional ones--are coming into the area. Since a real estate boom started in 1993 up till now, the prices keep going up."

Capin said more middle-class professionals are drawn to the neighborhood as renovations occur.

"The area's gentrifying," he said. "If you ask me, this is all our demand and supply." The median household income in Washington Heights and Inwood has shot up from $28,865 in 1999 to $52,578 in 2002, according to "Washington Heights and Inwood Online," a Web site about the area.

According to Capin, investors also are attracted to the area because of income stability.

"These rents cannot go lower than what they are now," Capin said. "These buildings used to sell about three-and-a-half times their rentals."

The buildings are currently selling for eight to nine-and-a-half times their rental rates, he added.

As the area gentrifies, many residents seek to shed old misconceptions.

The Hamilton Heights area once called "West Harlem" is actually now known by a new name by the owners uncomfortable with sterotypes.

It's called "Manhattanville," Capin said.

Big chain retail outlets are drawn to the area, too. Recent additions include Starbucks on West 181st Street and KB Toys.

Area buildings are not being built from scratch ... yet. According to Capin, renovations are raising real estate values left and right.

"They're buying these buildings that have fire damage or have been vacant for many years," he said. "They are completely renovating the building from A to Z."

A newly renovated three-bedroom apartment can rent for as much as $2,500 a month, Capin added.

The Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corporation centered initially on commercial revitalization, including major capital improvements to 181 st Street and the redevelopment of the Coliseum Theater.

In 1982, its commercial revitalization efforts were expanded to Inwood and WHIDC initiated a highly successful employment placement services program. Four years later, the organization kicked off its housing development program. In 1989, the first 49 units of low income housing were completed.

The corporation also has enacted a micro-business development program, called the Business Operating Success System and consisting of a micro-business loan program and a business assistance center.

More than 350 micro businesses have been established since 1992 with the help of the program.

The program has loaned more than $2.5 million to small stores, street vendors, construction contractors, at home businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

In 1997, the BO$$ program also has set up a "one-on-one" interaction with micro entrepreneurs.

The program helps micro-entrepreneurs with limited educational, English language, and business management expertise and has assisted almost 300 entrepreneurs in the past two-and-a-half years.

Culturally, the area started a marina/ restaurant facility on the Hudson at Dyckman Street and production of the annual Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park since 1983.

The festival draws about 40,000 visitors from throughout the tri-state area.