The future of West Oakland is noisy.

Hammers and mallets beat like metronomes for the tune of a neighborhood transforming. You can’t walk for long without hearing rapid-fire nailers thrusting nails — thwat, thwat, thwat — through targets.

The buzz of table saws slices through any lingering doubts of what is happening here: West Oakland’s makeover is booming. Once a neighborhood hammered by crime, drugs and poverty, West Oakland is now a place where urban professionals want to live. The future of West Oakland, with its proximity to highways and public transportation, was cemented decades ago.

“You’re closer to downtown San Francisco and downtown Oakland than almost anywhere else in the Bay Area,” Phil Kerr, the CEO of urban developer City Ventures, told me. “You’ve got a neighborhood in West Oakland that’s amazingly eclectic and interesting. With that comes challenges and opportunities, but it makes it also a great place to live.”

City Ventures is building Station House, 171 solar-powered townhomes between 14th and 16th streets. The company builds townhomes, condominiums and lofts through “infill development,” the process of turning vacant and underused parcels of land in urban areas into housing. Kerr’s West Oakland pitch is based on potential, because right now there are only a handful of coffee shops. The restaurants, shops and bars that anchor neighborhoods are expected to come.

“I fundamentally believe communities — cities — are either growing or dying,” Kerr said. “When there’s investment, there’s growth. Other people see new opportunity. For me, the idea of helping a city grow well is just a really interesting and exciting concept.”

Before lashing out against gentrification, know that Station House, one of many developments springing up in Oakland, hasn’t displaced any renters because it’s built on a former vacant lot. Station House is an example of Oakland’s unstoppable appeal. And if a $600 million infrastructure and affordable housing bond measure on the November ballot — Measure KK — passes, Station House and projects like it will be a source of relief for distressed renters.

Every two- and three-bedroom Station House townhome has a private garage with an electric car charger. In the Bay Area’s housing market, the starting price of $600,000 is a steal — if you can afford it.

The median home value in Oakland is about $620,000, according to Zillow, an online real estate database. That’s double what it was four years ago.

According to Zillow, the median rent in Oakland is $2,900. With a mortgage interest rate around 3.5 percent on a $600,000 loan, I calculate buyers are looking at a fixed monthly payment of roughly $2,700. Over the course of a 30-year loan, owners would save about a month’s rent annually and around $72,000 total.

The first Station House townhomes will be move-in ready next month. As of Monday, 44 of the 171 units had been sold, including one with a yard for $900,000.

London plane tree saplings have been planted outside the boxy townhomes with stained cement board siding. On a recent hard-hat tour of two of Station House’s models, I could see the Oakland hills, the federal building complex in downtown Oakland and the San Francisco skyline. The historic 16th Street Station abuts an edge of the development, as does the thoroughfare trucks use to access the Port of Oakland.

City Ventures isn’t the first developer to prospect in this section of West Oakland. Across the street from Station House is Iron Horse at Central Station, a rental property billed as affordable. One block away there are the Zephyr Gate townhomes. One block farther are the Pacific Cannery Lofts.

There aren’t enough homes in Oakland for people who want to buy them. New developments like Station House add to the housing stock while increasing Oakland’s tax base. Homeowners like the buyers at Station House would be taxed to pay for Measure KK, which has marked $100 million for the city’s antidisplacement effort.

The measure includes acquiring and rehabilitating housing for vulnerable communities and longtime Oakland residents who don’t want to leave the city.

The bond is a step in the right direction that should — hopefully — lead to more affordable housing construction. Oakland needs to hear that kind of noise from voters, because the future of the city is on the line.

Otis R. Taylor Jr. is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist whose column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr