Yet another one off Loop 410 has been capturing San Antonians’ curiosity for years. Not far from Ingram Park Mall on the city’s Westside is a building that looks pretty skeletal — all that remains is a metal frame and a blue tiled dome on top. It’s such a strange sight that local Reddit users have been asking about it for a while, calling it an “eyesore.”
So, what was this building in its heyday? The oldest image of the address available on Google Street View is from 2007, and a sign reading “Pepe’s” stands outside. Some Reddit users said the building used to house a Mexican restaurant, which seems to align with Bexar County records, which show a restaurant was built at that address in 2003.
But it wouldn’t stay a restaurant forever. The sign changed to read “Empire Night Club” by 2011, but by 2014, it had shape-shifted again. In a May 2014 Google Street View image, the sign says “Mansion Night Club” but keeps the crown logo from 2011.
It wouldn’t be long until it had another name change. By December 2016, it was “Nyne Hookah & Bar,” and two years later, it was called “Vybe Night Club.” It would stay that way in varying states of disrepair until 2021, when it seemed to be demolished. Between April and August of that year, Google Images shows the four walls being knocked out, leaving it in the condition it is in today.
According to Bexar County records, the deed was granted to RA Builders by La Cantera Builders Inc in 2018. And in February 2021, a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration was made for a $1.2 million shell renovation, the timing of which aligns with Google Images of the demolition. However, it seems that nothing has sprung up to take its place. MySA reached out to RA Builders for more information but had not heard back at the time of publication.