Three days after the street closed for the Hillsborough Renaissance, Hillsborough Street merchants are hoping for another big day of sales as the street hosts a St. Patrick’s Day Pajama hike.

According to Alan Lovette, owner of Melvin’s and Five O’Clock Sports Bar, the addition of the pajama hike came on the heels of this fall’s Haunted Hillsborough Hike.

The six “festivals” include the fall and spring hikes, the Taste of Hillsborough, Haunted Hillsborough Hike, the Renaissance, and the St. Patrick’s Day Pajama hike.

“It’ll be great for business,” Lovette said.

Merchants will be offering incentives tonight, including bar golf. Customers can pick up score cards at several locations on Hillsborough street, including Katmandu, East Village, Red Hot & Blues, and Sadlack’s. Lovette said the addition of the golf activity is intended to include those who may shy away from wearing pajamas out in public.

“In case people don’t want to wear pajamas, they can wear golf clothing,” Lovette said. “Golfers can wear just about anything.”

Lovette said RPD’s approval of six festivals a year should help out the businesses and clean up what he called “the front door of [N.C. State’s] campus.”

“The past couple years, the street has been at its all time low,” Lovette said. “But there are several things that will make it better.”

Lovette said Hillsborough Street merchants are looking to create a 100 foot buffer around campus to keep beggars away. They are also trying to persuade establishments to allow payment through an on-campus meal plan and increase parking awareness.

One of the plans that will especially effect Melvin’s and Five O’Clock is the city of Raleigh’s facade grant assistance program. The program will pay 50 percent of businesses’ investment into their entrances.

“We’re putting in garage doors so it’ll be open,” Lovette said.

Lovette said the open doors will allow customers to sit outside in the street and allow passers by to hear the live music coming from inside the restaurant. The restaurant has already purchased special bistro tables with heaters inside to keep patrons warm while they sit outside.

“They make it ten degrees warmer,” Lovette said.

Lovette said the street’s future is dependent on the festivals, but said the revitalization of the area is very much connected with the renovations as well.

“Business will be much better overall in the future if the street is improved,” Lovette said. “[Hillsborough Street should be] a place where alumni, residents and students can congregate.”

And although rain kept many away during Saturday’s Renaissance, Lovette has kept a close watch on today’s forecast.

“65 and sunny,” Lovette said.