"Our vision for Lloyd's is to be a beacon in downtown Cary."
Craig Spitzer, CEO of Early Bird Night Owl, said that in July, about a month before the group opened Lloyd's Full Service at 107 E. Chatham St. on Wednesday, Aug. 26. In the same statement he credited Downtown Cary Park and "the evolution of Chatham Street" for making Cary "a destination in its own right."
Lloyd's gets most of the attention, but Chatham Street's parking tells you more about where the strip is headed. This spring the town opened two free decks. Since then, the businesses near those decks have been opening, and several private lots along Chatham have started charging by the hour. Those paid lots mostly sit on properties that are between tenants.
The deck that came with a restaurant on the ground floor
The Cedar Street Parking Deck opened to the public on March 18, 2026. It sits between Cedar Street, Chatham Street and the new Rogers Alley, with about 300 spaces and roughly 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The elevators and stairs are in a tower on Chatham Street, and cars enter from Cedar. The Academy Street deck followed on April 11. The town's parking page now lists every downtown deck as open and free, for a total of more than 2,000 public spaces.
K38 Baja Grill opened in that ground-floor retail space at 147 E. Chatham on Aug. 29. CEO Brian Brennen said Cary's "family-oriented feel" was a good fit for the brand. Apex Outfitter and Board Company has a spot in the same building, and The Cary Report says it will share the deck's ground level with K38.
The town's planning documents put the Cedar deck inside the Central Chatham Subarea. The plan there calls for Chatham to become downtown's main commercial corridor, with retail, dining and offices on the ground floor and homes on the floors above. With a restaurant now open on its ground floor, the deck matches the street-level part of that plan.
What filled in along the strip in 2026
New tenants have been arriving all year, and the pace picked up once the decks opened. Here is what's new, by address:
| Business | Address | What it is | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Refreshery | 253 E. Chatham St. | Juice and coffee café with baked goods | Early January |
| Williams House Bookshop | 210 E. Chatham St. | Bookshop from The Arcane's owners, at the former Williams House Craft Taproom | July 15 |
| Vino & Tap | 307 S. Academy St. | Wine and tap bar | Grand opening July 10 |
| Douglas Provisions | 107 W. Chatham St. | Small market inside the Douglas Realty office | Aug. 20 |
| Lloyd's Full Service | 107 E. Chatham St. | American restaurant in a 1951 service station | Aug. 26 |
| K38 Baja Grill | 147 E. Chatham St. | Baja grill on the Cedar deck's ground floor | Aug. 29 |
The Arcane's owners took over the former Williams House Craft Taproom on June 18, and the bookshop opened less than a month later. Vino & Tap has since started a quarterly Collector's Club. Members get three bottles a quarter plus member discounts. A block off Chatham, Juliet Books opened July 28 at 200 Parkthrough Street.
Douglas Provisions covers a need that restaurants don't. It carries local produce, milk, eggs, snacks and other basics, plus North Carolina and Cary gifts. The Cary Report described it as a small neighborhood market rather than a replacement for a full grocery store, and noted that everyday retail downtown has grown more slowly than restaurants and bars.
Lloyd's kept the station and built around it
The building at 107 E. Chatham opened as K.M. Lloyd's service station in 1951 and was an auto repair shop until 2021. The renovation kept most of the original 1,280-square-foot station. It added a 2,300-square-foot kitchen and dining room and a 1,200-square-foot covered patio. This is the group's first stand-alone restaurant in the Triangle.
Chef Dennis Bernard came from Chicago, where he spent years at Blackbird and The Publican. Lloyd's serves dinner Wednesday through Friday and lunch on weekends. The opening menu included a seafood cocktail with habanero heat, milk bread with salted sweet butter, crispy pork schnitzel and a "Breakfast for Dinner" plate with glazed pork belly and a poached egg. There's also a "Meat n two" section.
The lunch menu has a dish tied to the corner across the street. The "Corner Dog" honors the hot dogs from the former Ashworth Drugs.
The corner still waiting on Ashworth's
Ashworth Drugs opened in 1957 and ran as a pharmacy and soda fountain until it closed in February 2024, after 67 years. The building is nearly 100 years old and two stories tall, at 105 W. Chatham St. Ralph Ashworth chose Once in a Blue Moon Bakery as the next tenant. The plan is for the bakery to move from 115 W. Chatham, keep the soda fountain and add breakfast. As of early October, the bakery's website still says only "New Location Coming Soon" and gives no date.
There's a bigger proposal behind that block. Ashworth Village would build three-story mixed-use buildings behind the Chatham storefronts, with 22 apartments and ground-floor shops or restaurants, and keep several of the street-facing buildings. No construction schedule has been published.
Ashworth's is one of three Chatham-area projects with no firm date:
- Once in a Blue Moon Bakery, moving into the former pharmacy at 105 W. Chatham. Status: "coming soon."
- Apex Outfitter and Board Company at 136 E. Cedar St. The company's own site still says "Fall 2026." Owner Kyle Denis told the N&O that downtown Cary is "underserved when it comes to retail."
- Doherty's Irish Pub, which leased 701 E. Chatham, the former Spirits Pub & Grub, for a second Cary location. As of Sept. 23 it had not announced an opening date.
Why the paid lots showed up as the free decks opened
In August, Modern Service moved from its longtime spot at 158 E. Chatham to 410 E. Chatham near Urban Park. Its old lot was repaved, restriped and turned into a private paid lot charging $3 an hour or $15 a day. The old Perfect Piece lot next door switched to paid parking earlier in the year. Across the street, the lot shared by Big Dom's and Pro's also charges, though customers of that shopping center can get their parking validated for free.
The Cary Report explained the timing. Private owners often charge for parking after a tenant leaves, while they decide what to do with the property. Modern Service and Perfect Piece both followed that pattern, and the newsletter doesn't expect the lots to stay paid forever. The newsletter also pointed out that the Cedar deck is a very short walk from the former Modern Service lot. It suggested the paid lots make the most sense on crowded days like Lazy Daze, or for anyone who needs to park close because of mobility limits.
So the two kinds of parking cover different parts of the street. The free decks sit next to the businesses that have already opened. The paid lots sit on properties that haven't found their next use yet. As those properties get redeveloped, the paid lots will likely change too.
One more item affects East Chatham itself. The town scheduled milling and resurfacing from Templeton Street to the East Durham Road roundabout for Sept. 14–18, with flaggers and some on-street parking temporarily closed. The town's resurfacing page lists the 2026 program as still in its paving phase. If curbside spaces are blocked when you visit, use one of the decks.
Two October evenings worth parking once for
The Cary Night Market returns to Downtown Cary Park on Friday, Oct. 16, from 5 to 9 p.m., with local artisans, food, drinks and music. On Monday, Oct. 26, the park holds a free Diwali celebration from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Great Lawn Pavilion, 327 S. Academy St. Both are close to the Academy Street deck and to Vino & Tap at 307 S. Academy. On either night, you can park once in a free deck and walk to dinner at Lloyd's or K38, pick up groceries at Douglas Provisions, and then walk over to the park.
If you're thinking about how close you want to live to downtown Cary's growing walkable core, or you'd like to know how Chatham Street's changes might affect your current home's value, Karen Tehrani is glad to talk it through. Request your free home valuation or a personalized Triangle community consultation.
