ELIZABETH CITY — Nearly every waterfront improvement paid for with Elizabeth City’s share of the Harbor Towns initiative is finished and in use. Only new electric and water pedestals for visiting boaters remain to be installed, said Deborah Malenfant, executive director of Elizabeth City Downtown, Inc.

Malenfant responded to Albemarle Observer questions on behalf of City Manager Reginald Goodson. Her account matches a status report from Harbor Towns Inc. that shows Elizabeth City well ahead of the other four communities in the $10 million state-funded program.

“All of the project elements funded by Harbor Towns, Inc. have been completed and are in use by our community, with the exception of the installation of the electric/water pedestals for boaters,” Malenfant wrote. “They are in fabrication and will be installed upon receipt.”

In a recent story, Harbor Towns President and CEO Nick Didow attributed the city’s progress to its being the first community to reach agreement with Harbor Towns and the state Office of State Budget and Management on its proposed improvements.

Anyway, see our story here about a regional update about Harbor Towns.

Harbor Towns operates the Albemarle Queen, a passenger cruise vessel that Malenfant said visits Elizabeth City several times a month during its operating season.

“The Albemarle Queen comes to the Elizabeth City waterfront multiple times per month during their operational season and hosts dinner, brunch and sunset cruises, and, I believe, has also been rented for private events,” she wrote.

Malenfant said Harbor Towns runs the vessel as a separate organization.

“Operationally, Harbor Towns is its own non-profit entity,” Malenfant wrote. The city and Visit Elizabeth City, the local tourism office, help market and promote the cruises and events when the boat is in port.

“It provides a unique experience to our community and visitors,” she wrote.

In a previous interview, Didow reported that the Albemarle Queen carried 3,191 passengers in 2025, its first full year of operation, with about half coming from outside the Albemarle Sound region. He said 2026 numbers are higher, though he did not give a year-to-date total, and that private event bookings have increased substantially.

Harbor Towns Inc. received state money for waterfront infrastructure in five communities: Elizabeth City, Columbia, Hertford, Edenton and Plymouth. Each was allocated $2 million.

Malenfant said city staff and City Council worked with Harbor Towns members to decide how Elizabeth City’s share would be spent. The plan centered on two city waterfront parks, Waterfront Park and Mariners’ Wharf Park, and included nine elements of work.

At Waterfront Park, the work included a new bathroom facility, an extension of the community pier, a covered pavilion on the pier, and perimeter sidewalks and some new curbing.

At Mariners’ Wharf Park, crews improved the existing bathroom facility, renovated the park’s office into a concessions room and installed new docks to accommodate larger boats. They also replaced railings and added electric and water connections at the boater docks, along with two electric panels for park use.

The city and Elizabeth City Downtown paid for additional work outside the Harbor Towns allocation, Malenfant said. That included widening the vehicle entrance to Waterfront Park, replacing lighting, landscaping, parking lot improvements, boat ramp repair and other dock improvements at Mariners’ Wharf Park.

The pedestals are the lone holdout. Didow’s report listed eight of Elizabeth City’s nine projects as having reached the final stage of the nonprofit’s nine-step process, which ends with the formal transfer of a finished asset to the town. The electric and water connections at the Mariners’ Wharf docks had reached construction supervision but not final transfer.