A small renaissance in W. Phila.

Residents and employees on the 4500 blocks of Sansom and Chestnut Streets use one word to describe the West Philadelphia neighborhood.

"Blight, blight, blight," says Darryl Thomas of the street where he works at a barbershop.

"When we first moved in, it was just blighted," echoes Pamela Hopkins, 56, who has lived here for eight years. Hopkins used to wake up at night from the sounds of gunshots and, when she wasn't sleeping, watched crime occur just outside her window.

So last February, when an Albanian immigrant named Hysni Syla - known as "Sam" among his American friends and colleagues - decided to undertake a complete transformation of the block, his efforts were greeted with effusive appreciation.

At an official unveiling of the multiuse property earlier this month, a crowd of family, friends, and real estate professionals toasted the $850,000 project that promises to revamp and polish the neighborhood.

The properties, which span 126-136 S. 45th Street, include both commercial and residential facilities, with six stores at approximately 1,000 square feet each, hardwood floors, and oversize double-glazed windows.

The apartments, targeted at students and young professionals, comprise 14 studios and one- and two-bedrooms with hardwood floors and granite kitchen counters. They range from $800 to $1,100 per month, and though leases begin Dec. 1, there are only three residential complexes left to rent.

Syla, 48, is originally from Kosovo, where he led 100 men in the Kosovo Liberation Army. In 1996, he came to the United States with a mere $1,000 to his name.

Here, he found a tight-knit community of other Albanians to shelter, feed and support him until he was able to build a business of his own.

Three years ago, Syla made his mark in the community after rehabilitating three mixed-use buildings at the corner of 45th and Chestnut Streets. Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell helped Syla's company, United General Contractors, acquire the properties, whose rehabilitation helped reduce local crime and brighten up the neighborhood.

The popular success of that project led to this recent one down the block that Syla managed and funded while his partner, Salih Gashi, 44 and also from Kosovo, oversaw construction for eight months.

The two men, now permanent U.S. residents, see their work as part of the "war against urban decay" in West Philadelphia, Syla said, where properties and retail spaces like this one are often abandoned or left as hotbeds for vandalism and other crimes.

"We have turned this address from an unsafe place to a nice neighborhood," he said.

The buildings on Sansom Street have also caught the attention of Lewis Wendell, executive director of University City District (UCD). Wendell, whose job entails maintaining and investing in University City retail properties, generally deals with properties on Baltimore Avenue, but he recently began working closely with Syla after noticing Gashi working and realizing the "fabulous opportunity" that existed here.

Since then, Wendell has been connecting Syla with other developers and trying to gauge whether his current or potential clients would be interested in setting up shop in Syla's newly furnished space.

Wendell praised Syla's renovations for their high quality and excellent exterior treatment, and UCD commercial corridor manager Joe McNulty added that it was "encouraging" that Syla and his crew took such strong interest in a decrepit area that most investors would never have looked at twice.