“Fighting the Perception”: Apex Wants You to Know Its Downtown Businesses Are Open

Textile artist Cynthia Mollenkopf has owned and operated the Cocoon Gallery on Downtown Apex’s main thoroughfare since 2017. She knows that running a North Salem Street storefront means there’s often change.

Cocoon Gallery supports a revolving door of 70 to 80 artists, Mollenkopf said, selling to customers who happen past the store or purchase online. Larger-than-life felt creations and colorful rugs hang in the space, bathed in natural light. Little trinkets and treasures sit on shelves you have to be careful not to bump into.

Mollenkopf is also involved in the ever-shifting small business ecosystem that defines downtown; she has given input on several major development decisions, witnessed storefront turnover, and keeps up with her neighbors.

She knew the Salem Streetscape project—a reimagined, pedestrian-centric version of the street with origins dating to 2019—was coming, and that construction could cause foot traffic to taper, leading in-store sales to decline. But Mollenkopf was excited for the finished product. 

“What we didn’t expect is that the landlords were then going to raise the rent,” she said. 

Mollenkopf said her store’s rent will increase (though was not comfortable sharing by how much), and she thinks her downstairs, upstairs, and nextdoor neighbors’ rents will either also go up, or already have. It’s hard to reconcile the strain with the construction, which she estimates brought sales down about 10%.

Many business owners along North Salem say they are seeing decreased foot traffic, and for restaurants, outdoor dining can be less desirable amid loud and dusty construction work, leading sales to dip and business owners to hunker down. 

The thing is, no businesses or sidewalks are actually closed.

“We’re really fighting a perception of downtown not being open, because if you go downtown, you can get into every business,” Town Manager Randy Vosburg told the INDY. “The sidewalks are open, the road is open for traffic flow. We’ve got plenty of parking.”

Apex’s downtown district is mainly lined with the facades of small local businesses, set into brick and mortar buildings whose roots date to the 1910s; the downtown thoroughfare is quaint, familiar, and lively. Most businesses are small gift and oddity shops, or mom-and-pop restaurants and breweries that stay afloat off of passersby curiosity, local word of mouth, and their collective presence.

The roughly $4.7 million Salem Streetscape project, which broke ground in January, aims to transform North Salem Street into a destination that centers walkability and outdoor dining by adding “staggered parallel parking, widened paver sidewalks, urban street trees, decorative light poles, string lighting, planter boxes, wayfinding signs, street furniture, and so much more,” according to Apex’s website.

During construction, the town has shut down a portion of the east side of North Salem Street to northbound traffic, which Vosburg projected will commence later this month before it swaps to the west side. Orange and white traffic cones, barricades, and tape surround the road as construction workers hack away at widening the sidewalks, remodeling a stretch of the road into a brick herringbone pattern, installing trench drains, and adding underground soil cells to support new American Elm trees.

Rents Rising, Sales Falling

Originally set to commence in October, the town projects an end date for the project as early as November or as late as January 2027, after revised electrical plans caused an unforeseen delay, which slowed work in March and April. 

In addition to declining sales and rent hikes, businesses are struggling to break even due to an omnishambles of concurrent property tax increases, rising insurance rates, and inflated supply costs. Those who haven’t already made tough calls anticipate they’ll soon have to.

Alexis Jenssen, who owns the gift shop North Left Mercantile with her husband, Leif, said they have seen about a 30% decrease in sales since January. They opened an online store, expanded their operating hours, and invested more in marketing to prepare for the long haul, she said.

While Laura Gerenser, owner of gift shop and craft space Adventures In Bloom, is newer to the street, she estimates about a 15% decrease compared to before construction started. She told the INDY that it was a “bit of a gut punch” to hear the project would extend into the holiday season, when they expect the bulk of their sales. 

Wayne and Kristyna Alcaide, who own farm-to-fork restaurant The Provincial, said they’ve accepted they are not making money this year, solely aiming to break even. Wayne Alcaide said they don’t want to place the burden of rising costs and decreased sales on their employees, and have still been giving raises.

“We said if we didn’t lose money, then it’s a win, right? Because everybody knew that revenue was going to be down, but the costs haven’t gone down right now,” he said. “Utilities, taxes, payroll, all go up, and then that doesn’t pause for a streetscape or downturn in the economy.”

Alleyway Bookstore already announced its closure in a social media post last month, citing a 64% rent hike and other pressures including the streetscape’s construction. Anna’s Pizzeria told WRAL they’ve also seen about a 10 to 20% decrease in sales and are cutting employees’ shifts. And Apex Mayor Jacques Gilbert featured Gabrielle Carlin, owner of Bella + Mauve, in a social media video, and said the boutique may have to make difficult decisions due to “economic pressures.” He encouraged people to shop in the district. (The owners of Alleyway Bookstore, Anna’s Pizzeria, and Bella + Mauve did not respond to the INDY’s requests for comment).

Stakeholders in the Streetscape

For all the downsides of the construction, Downtown Apex business owners told the INDY that the broader public perception of the project is misguided. Despite the short-term profit losses, many said they see it as a long-term investment and are excited that the project will make their businesses more attractive. Jenssen said it was a big reason she and her husband signed their most recent lease.

“We wanted to get in at this price and establish our business and get the roots that we needed, knowing that this is going to be a destination at that point,” Jenssen said. “And that means that we pay for destination pricing—and that’s an investment for us and our business, so we’re prepared for that.”

Mollenkopf, the owner of Cocoon Gallery, said another common misconception is that this project was a surprise. In fact, downtown business owners, including Mollenkopf, have been involved from the start.

The Salem Streetscape vision went back to a downtown design plan that took shape throughout 2019—with the help of a steering committee that included Jenssen and other business owners. Designs saw revisions with broader community input (including “focus groups, public workshops, a survey, and meetings with downtown tenants and property owners,” per Apex’s website) mostly until 2021. It’s one of the three main projects in the downtown plan, along with the recently completed Saunders Parking Lot expansion that added 152 spaces to the area, and the soon-to-come Alleys & Peak Gathering Space. 

Mollenkopf said most downtown businesses were “willing to suffer” through the construction, hoping they would make up for losses when the area had that destination feel.

“We also knew that the downtown businesses were seeing a year over year decline in sales, and so this was part of a ‘Let’s get the downtown modernized to help everybody out,’” Jenssen said.

While the town doesn’t want to minimize the experiences of struggling business owners, Apex Director for Economic Development Joanna Helms told the INDY, they have seen businesses downtown and across Apex thriving, too. Of the businesses seeing sales decreases, she added that construction might not be entirely to blame as much as other simultaneous pressures.

“We have some [businesses] that have seen significant decreases. We have some that said things are still the same. We’ve had some that said, ‘Hey, I had my busiest month last month,’” she said.

Not everyone has seen rent increases either, and multiple business owners told the INDY they have good working relationships with their landlords. Gerensen said she sees them as small business owners who are also facing economic pressures.

Helms said downtown business owners have told town leadership that they want them to speak positively about Downtown Apex to, again, fight the perception that it’s closed and unwelcoming during construction. Business owners the INDY spoke to credited the town for spreading the word that businesses are indeed open, and encouraging consumers to shop small. 

Two banners hang over the road at each end of the North Salem Street thoroughfare that read “Downtown Apex is open for business,” encouraging street signs are placed throughout sidewalks, and Vosburg and Helms emphasized the town has ramped up its online communications.

While some scoff at Apex Mayor Jacques Gilbert’s ubiquitous social media presence, downtown business owners also said they appreciated his posts spotlighting small businesses and informing the public of the construction project’s progress. Wayne Alcaide said he has heard from restaurant guests that Gilbert’s videos motivated their visit to downtown, even coming from towns over.

With the project’s end date teetering into the holiday season, when sales usually peak, business owners told the INDY they are bracing for losses. To bring in foot traffic and maintain a sense of normalcy, Vosburg said the town hopes to host a modified Christmas parade, perhaps with smaller floats to squeeze down the one-way street.

Business owners and town leaders both acknowledged the storefronts that line the thoroughfare could look different when construction wraps—whether due decreased business from the project, regular turnover exacerbated by economic pressures, the finished project attracting new and perhaps larger businesses, or all of the above.

But many businesses are sure they will make it through, and excited to become part of a livelier commerce hub, even if some anticipate a potential catch: their rents going up accordingly.

“Everyone’s feeling the impact of it, and we’re all gonna have a huge sigh of relief when we get through the other side,” Jenssen said. “I feel firmly … that we will all celebrate this at the end, and that our businesses will benefit from it, but I do wish people understood that this was a response to something … and hopefully we’ll all be here on the other side.”

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