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Above Salem Street, a sign welcomes visitors: “Downtown Apex is open for business!”
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Below it, excavators tear into one side of the street while the afternoon sun beats down on the other. Between them, cars creep along the one-way street.
“We don’t have lunch crowds anymore,” Salem Street Pub Front of House manager Skylar Gnann said. The pub has also lost the eight outdoor tables that once lined its frontage.
The disruption was supposed to ease sooner.
Apex began construction in January and initially expected the work to continue through October. The town now says the road is expected to reopen in mid-December, with final cleanup and punch-list work continuing until mid-January.
The timing could matter especially to Salem Street Pub, where Gnann said November and December are the busiest months of the year because downtown events draw customers.
Apex Transportation Engineering Manager Amir Nezarati said electrical and lighting details had to be completed and approved, with revisions driven by field conditions and contractor input. The $4.7 million project is intended to make downtown more walkable and attractive.
Several merchants told The News & Observer they have wanted more frequent communication from the town as construction continued. Gnann said there were about three weeks when work appeared to pause outside the pub and she did not know why.
“I have to go out and seek that information,” she said. “We’re not given information.”
Mission Market co-manager Matthew James said normal weekdays before construction brought in roughly 100 to 120 customers. Now, he said, a typical day brings about 70 to 100, and revenue is down about 20%.
The café now sees fewer families and more online orders, with fewer customers lingering inside.
“It’s just such a hassle to park and walk around the building to get in here to bring your family,” James said.
Before construction, he added, Mission Market was very crowded. “The voices were so much louder than the music,” he said. “You could barely hear the music.”
Gannon Karmire, a Holly Springs resident who said he visits Mission Market three or four times a week, experienced the disruption as a customer. When it initially made the café harder to reach, he temporarily switched to another coffee shop across the street.
But his favorite chai tea latte drew him back.
“I might get two or three of them while here,” Karmire said.
He sometimes meets there with Nana-Cobena Debordes of Cary and Chris Mahaffey of Fuquay-Varina. For the three friends from different towns, Salem Street is a convenient midpoint.
After Mission Market, they headed to Salem Street Pub for a late lunch.
“Some staff had to leave and find other jobs, and I can’t blame them for that,” Gnann said. Servers and bartenders rely on tips, making slower shifts harder to sustain.
Of about 30 employees, one full-time worker left for several months before returning part time, while another former full-time employee now only picks up occasional shifts.
She said daily revenue has generally been 10% to 30% below comparable days last year.
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Across the street, Anna’s Pizzeria had already watched construction move away from its side of Salem Street.
“When they finished our side, we didn’t really see a bump back in business,” manager Stephen Perticona said.
Two Salem Street businesses that were open when construction began won’t be there when the work is done. But neither has blamed the streetscape project as the primary reason for closing.
Alleyway Bookstore closed over the summer, citing a rent increase, though the business said in an Instagram post that construction had reduced its daily customer traffic.
The Perky Lady, a lingerie shop, is scheduled to close Oct. 15. Owner April Buchanan said the decision was part of a personal and professional transition.
“We have certainly seen a reduction in casual walk-in traffic during construction,” Buchanan said.
The construction has also changed how some residents get around Apex.
“The parameters of my life have narrowed because GoApex is less accessible,” said Elizabeth Brunner, a 63-year-old, car-free Apex resident.
Brunner’s usual Hunter and Hillcrest bus stop is about 0.2 miles from her home. With that stop out of service during the Salem Streetscape detour, she said her closest alternatives are about a half mile away.
She said she decided not to apply for Apex’s Peak Academy, a 14-week class that teaches residents how the town’s departments work, because the Wednesday sessions ended at 9 p.m., after dark, and the detour would no longer leave her close enough to walk home.
The detour suspended nine regular stops and added five temporary ones. Town officials said they kept service through downtown based on ridership data and to maintain access to downtown businesses.
Overall ridership appears unaffected and on-time performance has improved since February, officials said. Staff considered changing the detour but said another change would take weeks, cost thousands of dollars and potentially confuse riders.
The merchants interviewed by The N&O generally said they still expect the finished streetscape to help downtown.
“Right now, it’s really frustrating,” Gnann said. “But I know that there’s a light in the tunnel.”
Anna’s manager said he expects the finished street to draw people back.
“It’s going to look beautiful when it’s done,” he said.
Michelle Mariani, a social media manager who works with downtown businesses, pointed to planned trees, wider sidewalks and outdoor seating.
“Next year is going to be amazing,” she said. “It’ll feel more like a European-style town.”
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