Wonderland hotel concept is finished. What will replace it and when will it happen?
For more than an hour before the meeting started and then through nearly two hours of public comment Aug. 21, the atmosphere was tense in Ocean City Council Chambers. Citizens packed the room early, hoping the show of force would send a message.
Everyone was forced to wait anxiously to hear what council would do with a resolution affecting the future of the Wonderland Pier amusement park site.
Few people knew how the decision would go.
When the fourth councilman in a row said he could not support sending the property to the Planning Board for a recommendation on its future as “an area in need of rehabilitation,” it became clear Eustace Mita’s 252-room hotel and retail complex was doomed.
Minutes after council’s formal 6-1 vote against the resolution, Mita confirmed that it was indeed all over for him.
The man behind the upscale Icona Resorts and Achristavest Fine Home Builders, a self-described hometown boy who splits time between his property in Ocean City and one in Pennsylvania, said he was giving up on the idea to spend up to $150 million on his grand hotel plan and was immediately putting the property up for sale.
The council vote came almost exactly a year since Mayor Jay Gillian announced in mid-August 2024 that he would close his family’s amusement park that fall, ending nearly 60 years of Wonderland’s place at Sixth Street and Boardwalk.
The fear about the future of that property actually began in early 2021 when Mita, whose business is hotels and luxury homes, spent $14 million to buy the property and save it from foreclosure. He rented the amusement park back to Gillian, who kept it going another four summers before giving into his reality that it was no longer financially viable.
The past year has been one of rampant speculation, rumors, accusations, community activism and political threats, and a growing debate in the community between those who believed Mita’s proposed eight-story hotel would doom or save the boardwalk.
Now Wonderland Pier is up for sale for $25 million, according to Mita.
There are those who still want to see a similar amusement park there, but it is hard to fathom how that would come to pass. Some community groups are backing the concept of a smaller-scale amusement park catering to children with other entertainment offerings and a housing component, but they don’t own the property.
Unless someone or some group buys the property and comes up with a project that fits right back into the amusement zoning, it could be quite a while before something takes Wonderland’s place.
City Council practically has ensured that.
While refusing to send the property to review by the Planning Board, councilmen made it clear a review of Ocean City’s Master Plan must come first.
The Wonderland site, almost everyone of them said, needs to be looked at in context with the entire boardwalk and the city as a whole. That does make sense, but it isn’t a quick process.
A comprehensive Master Plan review with all the meetings and public input could take a few years. Perhaps the city can speed it up by making it the No. 1 priority, but in the meanwhile portions of the boardwalk business community could continue to suffer.
Wonderland Pier amusement park was the big draw for the northern end of the business section of the boardwalk. As soon as it closed businesses began to feel the effects from the lower volume of traffic.
Mita had refurbished the main Wonderland building and reopened a pizza joint and arcade there to provide something there this summer season, but there is no guarantee that will stay open.
As the acrimony that has built up over the past year begins to die down, all eyes are going to remain on that Wonderland property. The biggest questions are unanswered: What is going to happen there, if anything? When will it happen? And will it lead to more division or bring the community together?