Salem Street Pub counts November and December as its busiest months of the year because downtown events bring people in. This year the pub has lost the use of the eight outdoor tables along its frontage, and the street in front of it is still a construction zone. The News & Observer reported in September that the pub's daily revenue has generally run 10% to 30% below the same days a year earlier.
That context explains the town's choice for Saturday, Dec. 5. Apex spent the summer weighing whether to move the Apex Rotary Christmas Parade away from its half-rebuilt main street. It decided to keep the parade on Salem and fit the parade to the street. The busiest night on the downtown calendar will run through the work zone and past the storefronts that have absorbed a year of detours.
Salem Street won't be finished before the parade
The $4.7 million Salem Streetscape project began in January. It brings wider sidewalks, new lighting, street trees and street furniture to the stretch between Saunders and Chatham streets, which has been one-way southbound all year. In April, Mayor Jacques Gilbert said the project was on track to finish by October. WRAL reported that the town's Sept. 1 update now runs the construction contract from January through December 2026.
The town's transportation engineering manager told The News & Observer that the delay came from electrical and lighting revisions. Those included moving power infrastructure, coordinating with the street-tree installation and expanding electrical service for future improvements. In an August newsletter, Councilmember Terry Mahaffey also mentioned "mild surprises" under the west side, including utility lines that weren't where crews expected them.
As of September, work stood here:
- East side: underground work and pavers finished in mid-July, and southbound traffic now uses the new east-side lane.
- West side: crews are rebuilding it, starting with underground soil cells and storm drains. Electrical and fiber conduit come next.
- Still on order: light poles and street furniture for the finished east side.
- Pedestrian access: a 5-foot-wide sidewalk path stays open along the west-side businesses.
The town told The News & Observer it expects the road to reopen in mid-December, with cleanup and punch-list work continuing until mid-January. That date is a forecast, and it falls after the parade either way.
Apex looked at moving the parade and kept it downtown
The town reached its decision over three meetings, and each one narrowed the options.
- May 19. Staff told council that the alternate routes they reviewed would shrink viewing areas, create ADA accessibility problems, limit parking and push spectators into yards and ditches. Holly Springs Update reported that one route would cut off fire, police and EMS access to 166 homes on Lower Duncan, and another would affect 53 homes on Salem Street. The parade had 12 bands and about 114 entries last year. A tighter route would have meant fewer entries and no food trucks. Staff offered a "stationary parade" as an alternative, with floats and performers staying in place while visitors walked through.
- June 16. Staff told council that parts of downtown could have a single travel lane only 8 to 10 feet wide. Rotary identified about nine oversized entries that might not fit. One option was a modified route that would turn the largest floats onto Saunders Street before the narrowest section, while marching units and smaller entries continued through downtown. Holly Springs Update reported that the stationary idea "received little support." Insurance and liability for an active construction site were still unresolved.
- August. At a work session, council heard an update confirming the usual route. Mahaffey wrote in his newsletter that the plan assumes one side of the street will be closed, and that larger floats might need to leave the parade a bit early.
His newsletter also left the town room to adjust:
"Around October we believe we'll have a good idea as to where the street will be, and if we can pivot back to a 'normal' parade with Salem fully open, all the better."
The town hasn't published an update on that October check. Until it does, the one-side-closed plan is the working assumption.
The 9-foot rule sizes the parade to the work zone
You can see the construction in the parade itself. The Apex Rotary Club's 2026 registration page calls it new for this year: every entry is limited to a maximum vehicle or trailer width of 9 feet, measured mirror to mirror or at the widest point of the trailer, "due to roadway limitations in Downtown Apex." Wider entries will be turned away. For scale, Rotary notes that a standard mid-size pickup is about 6 feet 8 inches wide.
Nine feet sits at the low end of the 8-to-10-foot lane the town expected to have in the work zone. Rotary set the limit to fit the narrowest stretch of the street.
The route is the familiar one. The parade starts at 5 p.m. 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. Rotary warned entrants that spots would fill quickly and expected all of them to be reserved by the end of September.
The parade sits inside two weekends of downtown events
Keeping the parade downtown also keeps it next to the town's other early-December events, most of which are already on Salem or a block away.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Small Business Saturday. Apex Economic Development posted a "Shop Small on Small Business Saturday" notice in October, alongside a separate post titled "Discover Holiday Magic in Downtown Apex!"
- Friday, Dec. 4: Tree Lighting Ceremony. 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 73 Hunter St.
- Friday, Dec. 4, through Sunday, Dec. 13: Snowman Stroll on Salem. The town calendar lists it for those 10 days.
- Saturday, Dec. 5: Apex Rotary Christmas Parade. 5 p.m., down Salem Street.
The tree lighting and the parade fall on back-to-back evenings, and the Snowman Stroll runs through both. If the mid-December forecast holds, two-way traffic would return just after the Snowman Stroll ends.
The businesses along the route
The detours of the past 10 months make this stretch matter more. In the same News & Observer report, Mission Market's co-manager said weekday orders had fallen from 100 to 120 to roughly 70 to 100. Revenue first dropped about 50% from the year before and has since recovered to about 20% below. Anna's Pizzeria's manager told the paper that business didn't really pick up after crews finished his side of the street. Virtuoso Jewels told WRAL its business recovered once construction moved to the other side.
Two shops that were open on Salem when construction started have since closed. Neither named the project as its main reason. Alleyway Bookstore stopped serving customers on Aug. 15, citing a 64% rent increase, though it said construction had also cut its foot traffic. The Perky Lady closed on Oct. 10 after nearly a decade downtown, The News & Observer reported, with the shop's lease nearing its end.
The merchants The News & Observer interviewed still expect the finished street to help downtown. They pointed to the planned trees, wider sidewalks and outdoor seating that will replace tables like the eight Salem Street Pub lost this year. The holiday weekends come first, though, and the parade route keeps those crowds walking past these storefronts.
Getting downtown on Dec. 4 and 5
The town's advice all year has been that downtown stays open during construction. It points visitors to its interactive parking map and the Apex Parking app to find open spaces. On the west side, expect the 5-foot pedestrian path instead of a full-width sidewalk. Groups with strollers or wagons should plan to walk single file in places.
If you ride the bus, GoApex Route 1 is still on its construction detour, which the town expects to last until late 2026. The detour suspended nine regular stops and added five temporary ones, so check that your usual stop is in service before parade night. For any last-minute changes to the route or the street layout, the Town of Apex and Apex Rotary pages are the places to check.
When Salem Street reopens, downtown Apex's busiest blocks will have new sidewalks, trees and outdoor seating, and that will change how the homes around them are seen and valued. If you own near downtown and want to know how the finished streetscape could affect your plans, Ensemble Properties can help you price and present your home for the new Salem Street. List With Ensemble.
