Downtown San Antonio’s historic Nix Building at 414 Navarro St. may soon be bustling with new life. New plans submitted to the city detail an ambitious transformation of the landmark tower into a mixed-use residential and commercial property, featuring 329 apartment units, prime street-level storefronts, and a new restaurant.
In mid-July, Rio Grande Valley real estate firm Innjoy Hospitality submitted detailed blueprints to the Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC) for what is now being dubbed the Nix Apartments. The patient rooms and offices for the former hospital will be renovated into studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, keeping as much historical detail as possible, including terrazzo flooring.
The plans also reveal some swanky amenities that will appeal to prospective new residents. A spacious lobby includes dining tables and a living room set-up. The fourth floor consists of a library outfitted with reading tables and club chairs, and a 2,011-square-foot fitness center is planned for the fifth level.
More lounges are planned for the lower floors. The studio apartments will be a little more packed, but will be serviced by a full laundromat on the eighth floor. Currently, the blueprint does not show a penthouse suite; the upper decks are reserved for mechanical rooms.
The schematics allow architectural buffs to dig deep into all the rooms, right down to the gypsum ceilings. Dying to know if the public restrooms have baby changing tables? Yes, they do, and there are plenty of quartz countertops. It also appears some of the rooms are carpeted, a move we hope will be reconsidered.
According to Texas Historical Association records, Joseph Madison Nix opened the Nix Building in 1930 with 208 beds and a score of modern amenities like a cafeteria, barbershop, and plentiful office space. The San Antonio Light described it as “the most valuable piece of residential property in San Antonio,” though Nix had plans to revolutionize health care by placing doctors’ offices, hospital facilities, and parking all in one building.
In September 2019, Prospect Medical Holdings, then the owner of the tower, announced it was closing the hospital due to a decline in demand for services within the city core. By the end of that year, Nix Health collapsed and all its clinics were shuttered.
Innjoy bought the building in late 2019. At the time, the company briefly considered using the property as a hotel, but those plans quickly shifted to multi-residential housing.
Although the HDRC project details offer the most detailed look yet of the upcoming project, the rest is left up to speculation. San Antonians will have to wait to see if the restaurant will be locally owned, if the property will allow pets, and, most importantly, if ghostly patients still roam the halls.