Apex's Holiday Season Arrives Before Salem Street Is Finished

A sign above Salem Street says "Downtown Apex is open for business!" Below it, the News & Observer described excavators digging into one side of the street while cars crept single file along the other. That was early September. The street is still one-way, and downtown's busiest stretch of the year is close.

Skylar Gnann, front of house manager at Salem Street Pub, told the N&O that November and December are the pub's busiest months because downtown events bring people in. This year those events have more to do. Downtown's holiday calendar now has to bring people back to Salem Street before the new street is ready for them, and almost every piece of it has been adjusted to fit.

The calendar overlaps the final weeks of construction

The $4.7 million Salem Streetscape started in January 2026. The town first expected it to run through October. As of the N&O's September 8 report, the town expects the road to reopen in mid-December, with cleanup and punch-list work continuing until mid-January. Apex Transportation Engineering Manager Amir Nezarati told the paper the delay came from electrical and lighting revisions. Those covered where power infrastructure goes, coordination with new street trees and expanded electrical service for future improvements.

WRAL reported that the town's September 1 project update lists the construction contract as running from January through December 2026. Mid-December is still a target, so it's worth checking the town's Salem Streetscape page before you plan around it.

Put the calendar next to that timeline and nearly every holiday event falls before the expected reopening:

Jazz & Jive Night on November 20 is the first big one. Historic Downtown Apex lists Peter Lamb and the Wolves and Poetry Fox on the bill. The tree lighting and the Chanukah Festival are both at Town Hall, 73 Hunter Street.

The parade has been resized for a narrower street

The clearest sign that the season is being fitted to the construction is in the parade rules. The Apex Rotary Club is running its Christmas Parade on Saturday, December 5, at 5 p.m. The parade is sponsored by Crossroads Ford. It starts at Ambergate Station and The Peakway, heads down Salem Street, turns onto Moore Street and ends at the Apex Public Works buildings on Upchurch Street.

What's new this year is a size limit. The Rotary's entry page says that "due to roadway limitations in downtown Apex," every entry is capped at 9 feet wide, measured mirror to mirror or at the widest point of the trailer. Wider entries will be turned away. For comparison, the club notes that a standard mid-size pickup is about 6 feet 8 inches wide.

For people watching from the curb, that probably means a parade of trucks, trailers and smaller entries in place of anything oversized. It also means the route still runs down Salem Street. The town and the Rotary kept the parade on its usual street and sized the floats to match.

The passports are built to get people through shop doors

Two separate programs this season are designed to get people walking from shop to shop on Salem Street. During construction, that casual walk-in visit is the kind of traffic merchants told the News & Observer they were seeing less of. Mission Market co-manager Matthew James said the café was getting more online orders, with fewer customers lingering inside. Salem Street Pub has temporarily lost the use of eight outdoor tables along its frontage.

Both passports aim at that walk-in traffic.

Peak Perks runs year-round through Historic Downtown Apex. Passports are free at participating shops. One visit with a pretax spend of $25 or more earns a punch, and six punches complete the card. The shop where you earn the sixth punch gives you an instant reward worth at least $5. Each full card is also entered in a quarterly raffle, and the winner picks a gift card from the participating shops' prize pool. These are the 13 participating businesses:

• Apex Outfitter
• Artfully Apex
• Bella + Mauve
• Cocoon Gallery
• Common Grounds
• Groovy Duck Bakery
• Joyfully House
• Lichen or Knot
• Mission Market
• North Left: A Modern Mercantile
• Stylish Living
• The Apex Gallery & Custom Framing
• Whole Brain Escape

Snowman Stroll on Salem runs December 4 through 13 and is organized by Apex Economic Development. According to the 2026 event listing, visitors collect passport stamps at participating businesses, and those businesses offer snowman- and winter-themed specials, decorations and holiday activities.

These programs overlap more than their names suggest. A December gift run to Groovy Duck Bakery, North Left or Apex Outfitter could count toward both passports if you meet each program's rules. Small Business Saturday on November 28 falls about halfway between Jazz & Jive and the Stroll.

The town's support goes beyond events. An August 11 Town Council item proposed a Downtown Apex Business Promotion Strategy through December 31, 2026. It built on the town's "Keep Loving Local" messaging and encouraged shopping, dining and buying gift cards downtown. It proposed about $5,000 a month from September through December, with a cap of $25,000. The item said a separate budget amendment would follow.

Getting downtown while one side is still open

According to WRAL's report on the town's September 1 update, crews finished underground infrastructure and pavers on the east side of Salem Street in mid-July. Southbound traffic moved onto the new east-side lane while crews rebuilt the west side, and a 5-foot-wide sidewalk path stays open along the west-side businesses. The town sends visitors to its interactive parking map and the Apex Parking app to find open spaces. Historic Downtown Apex's homepage links to the same map.

James described the problem from the inside. He told the N&O, "It's just such a hassle to park and walk around the building to get in here to bring your family." Checking the parking map before you leave costs a few minutes and saves you from circling the block on parade night.

GoApex riders should plan ahead too. The detour suspended nine regular stops and added five temporary ones. For a night event, check which stop serves your route before you go.

Running the season one weekend at a time

The calendar spreads out well if you take it in order:

1. Friday, November 20. Jazz & Jive Night from 5 to 8 p.m. with Peter Lamb and the Wolves and Poetry Fox. Pick up a Peak Perks passport at the first participating shop you visit.
2. Saturday, November 28. Small Business Saturday. This is a good day to fill punches at shops like Cocoon Gallery, Lichen or Knot and Stylish Living.
3. Friday, December 4. The tree lighting at Town Hall runs 4:30 to 7 p.m., the same day the Snowman Stroll opens on Salem.
4. Saturday, December 5. The Rotary Christmas Parade steps off at 5 p.m. from Ambergate Station and The Peakway. Choose your spot along Salem or Moore Street early.
5. Sunday, December 6. The Apex Chanukah Festival runs from 3 to 6 p.m. at Town Hall.
6. Through December 13. Finish your Snowman Stroll stamps before the street's expected mid-December reopening.

Merchants interviewed by the N&O generally said they still expect the finished streetscape to help downtown. Gnann told the paper, "Right now, it's really frustrating. But I know that there's a light in the tunnel."

At DuBois Property Group, we keep an eye on how projects like the Salem Streetscape change the way people use downtown Apex, from parade routes to which shops get foot traffic. If you'd like to talk about what the finished street could mean for your part of Apex, schedule a consultation with our team.