Apex Quietly Built a Second Downtown This Year, and It's on Hunter Street

Show up to Salem Street on the evening of September 19 looking for Festa Italiana, and you'll find a quiet block of storefronts instead of a cannoli-eating contest. The festival isn't canceled. It's set for Hunter Street and the Town Hall Courtyard, a few blocks off Salem Street. A week later, the Apex Latino Arts Festival lands at the Apex Town Campus, also on Hunter Street, the same general address as the festival before it.

I can't tell you whether either festival has always been held there. What I can tell you is that twice already this year, Apex has pulled a signature Salem Street event off its usual block and set it up on Hunter Street instead, because Salem Street itself is mid-construction and can't handle the crowd. Now the fall's two biggest downtown festivals are landing in that same spot. Whether or not they always have, Hunter Street has become the address doing the heavy lifting for Apex's civic calendar this year, and Salem Street won't get any of it back before construction wraps, a target the town has pegged to October even as the work itself has fallen behind pace this summer.

The Timeline Behind the Detours

The reason is the Salem Streetscape project, a roughly $4 million overhaul of the block between Saunders and Chatham Streets that started in the first months of 2026 and has kept North Salem Street restricted to one-way southbound traffic ever since. The town always described it as a temporary inconvenience for a permanent upgrade: wider paver sidewalks, string lighting, a new gathering space at Salem and Saunders. As of this spring, Mayor Jacques Gilbert said the project remained on track to wrap by October, with two-way traffic returning at that point.

But "on track" hasn't meant painless. ABC11 reported in June that the project was running behind its original pace, and that the disruption had already cost downtown at least one business: Nick Bryant, owner of Apex Gallery and Framing, closed his shop across from the construction after watching foot traffic fluctuate for months. Other merchants have stayed open and simply adjusted. Larry Seiger, who owns Virtuoso Jewels on Salem Street, put his frustration in plain terms when a reporter asked what business owners needed most during the slowdowns.

"The main thing that I think most of the business owners are looking for is communication."

Apex resident Roberto Navarra was more direct about the day-to-day experience of driving through downtown this year: "very hard to drive, plus the noise."

Four Dates, One Address

What's easy to miss, if you're only tracking the traffic pattern and not the calendar, is how consistently the town keeps landing on the same block of Hunter Street every time downtown needs somewhere else to go.

PeakFest closed Hunter Street to vehicles from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. for its relocated run in May. The Fourth of July celebration didn't just move, it changed shape entirely: the town canceled the traditional Olde Fashioned Fourth of July block party and instead folded its two most popular elements, the Parade of Wheels and the Fire Department's Splash Down, into a new Fireworks Frenzy event at Hunter Street Park, complete with a drone show that hadn't been part of the celebration before.

Why Hunter Street Keeps Winning the Job

Hunter Street Park and the Town Hall Campus aren't neutral substitutes. They're the specific pieces of civic land that let Apex host a festival without touching the corridor under construction. Hunter Street Park sits at 1250 Ambergate Station, with its own soccer field for viewing areas and enough open ground to stage a parade route that starts near Foxtail Coffee and runs down to Mason Street. The Town Hall Campus at 73 Hunter Street has its own courtyard and enough width to close the street to vehicles for a full day without cutting off through traffic elsewhere in town.

That combination, closable without gridlocking the rest of Apex, plus enough space for a real crowd, is exactly what Salem Street can't currently offer. A section of North Salem is already restricted to local traffic only, with through traffic detoured onto NC 55 and Hunter Street. Layer a festival on top of that and there's no room left to work with. A second closure on the Peakway itself, tied to a bridge project near Towhee Drive, has spent parts of this year routing even more west-side traffic onto Olive Chapel Road and Williams Street, which only adds to the case for keeping big gatherings off the main corridor entirely.

Mayor Gilbert put the town's position simply when the Fourth of July plans changed: this year, "we've got to make some pivots."

What's Still Working on Salem Street

None of this means downtown Salem Street is closed for business, even if the traffic and the missing marquee events might suggest otherwise. The town has kept a five-foot-wide sidewalk open along the business frontages on the west side specifically so shoppers and diners can still reach storefronts on foot. Two restaurants opened on that same stretch during the middle of construction rather than waiting it out: Popovers Cafe at 219 N. Salem Street, run by Mustafa and Juliette Ozturk, and Scratch Kitchen & Taproom at 225 N. Salem, known for a scratch-made menu that runs from comfort classics to more adventurous plates. Parking capacity actually grew during this stretch too. The Saunders Lot expansion added 152 spaces downtown, a 40 percent jump in overall capacity, and the Apex Parking App now shows real-time availability so drivers aren't circling blocks that don't exist anymore.

Downtown's social district, the Local Spot, still lets visitors buy a to-go drink and carry it between participating shops, construction or not. A separate summer promotion, the Local Spot Passport, encouraged that same kind of shop-hopping from June 19 through September 7, though by the time Festa Italiana rolls around that passport window will have just closed. According to figures the town has cited, about 67 cents of every dollar spent locally stays in Apex, supporting other businesses and local jobs, which is part of why officials keep pushing residents to treat downtown as open rather than avoided this year. Downtown Apex is still home to 132 local businesses, construction or not.

The Question October Doesn't Answer

Two-way traffic is scheduled to return to Salem Street in October, assuming that target holds given the delays already reported this summer. Even if it does, that resolves the driving problem, not the venue question. Nothing the town has said publicly commits PeakFest or the Fourth of July celebration back to Salem Street once the sidewalks are finished. Hunter Street Park and the Town Hall Campus have already carried two of the town's marquee events this year without apparent issues, in the Fourth of July's case with an upgrade, a drone show, that hadn't existed before. If the two fall festivals go as smoothly, the town will close out 2026 with a full year of evidence that its civic calendar doesn't need Salem Street to function.

If you live in Apex and you've spent 2026 reflexively parking near Salem Street for every downtown event, this is the year to build a second mental map. Hunter Street Park, the Town Hall Campus, and the Apex Town Campus have quietly become as central to the town's calendar as Salem Street itself, and there's no guarantee that changes back once the construction fencing comes down.

Planning the Next Few Weekends

For Festa Italiana on September 19, arrive between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. at Hunter Street and the Town Hall Courtyard, 500 Hunter Street, where organizers have promised live entertainment, authentic Italian food, and the cannoli-eating contest. The Apex Latino Arts Festival follows on September 26 from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Apex Town Campus, 63 Hunter Street, with dance, music, and a food truck rodeo.

If you're taking the bus, remember GoApex Route 1 has been on a detour since January 27, with stops shifted near the Halle Cultural Arts Center and Moore Street. GoCary Route 9's stop at the Historic Apex Depot on Center Street is unaffected, and riders can transfer between the two at the Mason Street Municipal Building. If you're driving and still want a Salem Street stop before or after either festival, park in the expanded Saunders Lot, check the Apex Parking App for a live count, and walk the five-foot sidewalk path past Popovers Cafe or Scratch Kitchen & Taproom on your way.

Whichever weekend you catch, pay attention to where the tents go up. That's the map the rest of Apex's calendar has been quietly drawing all year.

If watching Apex reroute its whole civic calendar has you wondering what the finished Salem Streetscape means for the value of your own corner of town, Keith O Realty can get you a free home valuation whenever you're ready to see where your address stands.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.