After more than a decade of growth and gradual improvement, the town that touts itself as "the peak of good living" is experiencing a surge in historic renovations and entrepreneurial investment.

Several new stores, a coffee shop and a small but sophisticated cultural arts center have opened along downtown Apex's picturesque two-block core of Salem Street, the historic main drag.

More restaurants and shops are in the works, condominiums are proposed downtown and a 200-acre mix of housing, offices and stores is being built just outside the heart of this booming old railroad town of about 34,000 people southwest of Raleigh.

"The buzz is just incredible," said a buoyant Lois Cozart, 51, who owns My Girlfriend's Closet, a consignment boutique on downtown's edge. "So many people are coming here, and businesses are opening with new energy. In the three years I've been here, this is the most exciting time."

Cozart's praise came as her daughter tried on dresses at Salem Street's new Nativa Boutique. The store's husband-and-wife owners, Carlos and Amina Sierra, looked at strip-mall locations before choosing downtown.

"We like the feel of downtown Apex -- the history of it," Carlos Sierra said one recent bustling afternoon in his popular dress shop. "One of the things that brought us to Apex is that people really care about the downtown. They're preserving the historic character while bringing in good retail."

For years, Apex lagged Cary, its bigger, richer neighbor to the northeast. But recent growth has raised Apex's profile, and increased publicity has in turn promoted and helped focus growth.

"We're trying to get the word out to everybody about all the happenings going on downtown," said mortgage executive Dudley Moorhous, president of the Apex Downtown Business Association.

Family fun with flair

It seems to be working. Last year, Money Magazine ranked Apex the nation's 14th-best small town, tops in North Carolina. And the current issue of Family Circle magazine highlights the town's all-round appeal for families.

"I love what's happening here," said Leslie Johnson, marketing coordinator for Helm Builders, which is renovating the historic Tobacco and Mule Exchange building. "Apex is very family, but it's also got an upscale flair."

For the foreseeable future, more activity is sure to highlight Apex's chief weakness: a shortage of parking downtown. Imminent construction of a new downtown police station, although welcome, will worsen a chronic problem, town leaders say.

"In two years' time, a place like this could fold without any parking," J.C. Knowles, Apex's 79-year-old official "goodwill ambassador," said one recent afternoon over tea at Common Grounds, a new coffee shop in the old exchange building. "We're not going to let the parking problem defeat us. We're going to work out something, somehow."

Knowles publishes the Triangle Gazette, a free monthly featuring local events, state history, recipes and humor. As Apex's "amBAAsadah," as he calls his cherished role, he serves as the town's professional ribbon-cutter, invocation-giver and storyteller. He was also named, as he'll tell you and as his business cards proclaim, the 2007 Apex Citizen of the Year.

Despite the occasional headaches, Ambassador Knowles said, growth is welcome.

"Something great is happening in Apex," he said. "We're going to try to keep that old-town character -- but we want to fill it up with people. The world is moving so fast today, people long for a place to settle and take a breath. Apex is the place to do that."

Town grew gracefully

Cary native Marci Phelps, 35, bet on Apex's future. On March 1, she opened Blue Tiger, an upscale, eclectic gift shop. She said word of mouth is helping her business, and evening traffic is picking up.

"This is what Cary was supposed to do: keep the small-town image while having the growth," Phelps said. "It sort of reminds me of Five Points in Raleigh, only better."

That sort of assessment puts a smile on the face of Keith Weatherly, state executive director of the federal Farm Service Agency and Apex's mayor the past 13 years.

Apex has grown five times larger under his leadership. It had to sprout subdivisions to house a big enough population to attract quality retail and commercial development, he says. And yet, he adds, "We don't want to be like other towns that brag about how fast they're growing."

Apex's elected officials and business leaders have taken care to save and enhance downtown amid the town's population boom.

"The transformation of downtown is key to the uniqueness of Apex," Weatherly said during a recent stroll down Salem Street's sidewalks. "We realize this is our jewel, and we're committed to preserving it. It's what small towns are supposed to be."

The crown jewel

The town's shiniest new facet, the $2.2 million Halle Cultural Arts Center of Apex, anchors downtown's north end.

The former town hall, jail and movie house, brought back to life through Apex's first big public-private partnership, opened this year with art galleries, studios, meeting rooms and an auditorium.

"It's a fantastic addition," the mayor said. "It preserves a significant historical building, and the renovation brings new life as our first-ever cultural and performing arts center."

The landmark renovation is an exclamation point on what Weatherly calls the renaissance of Apex's Salem Street Historic District.

"It's our crown jewel," he said.

The same could be said of Apex's rising status in the Triangle, for the aptly named town is peaking.