OCEAN CITY — No amusement park operator will open a business on the Ocean City boardwalk because there is no alcohol available, no games of chance and no midway games.
“If you’re an amusement park operator, you’re at a huge disadvantage because that’s what people look for today,” said Jody Levchuk, a city councilman, vice president of New Jersey Amusements & Attractions and a member of the Boardwalk Subcommittee charged with examining the commercial zone.
The island has been in a state of flux since Wonderland Pier closed in mid-October 2024, leaving a significant gap in the boardwalk’s entertainment offerings and depriving the business community of an anchor in the north end of the commercial district.
Property owner Eustace Mita, who had purchased the site at the corner of Sixth Street from former owner Jay Gillian in 2020, proposed building an eight-story, 252-room hotel, sparking a powder keg of dissent from the public and numerous meetings at which dozens expressed their dismay at losing the island’s small-town charm. Conversely, the business community aligned behind Mita’s proposal.
Several citizens groups formed to fight the proposal and some suggested alternatives, but the general consensus was that an amusement park would be the best replacement.
But that’s not going to happen, Levchuk said, laying out the reasons why during an information session Feb. 7 reporting on the subcommittee’s progress.
The board is focused on the Boardwalk Zone, a commercial stretch about a mile long from Sixth to 14th streets. Wonderland Pier, which catered to children, tweens and teens, was a huge attraction for almost 60 years, keeping people moving the entire length of the business district.
Levchuk, whose family owns JiLLy’s Arcade and associated businesses, knows a thing or two about the boardwalk.
“There’s nothing I love more than amusement parks, so I’m very happy to talk about this,” he told the packed meeting at the Ocean City Free Public Library.
He conducted a comparison of the seven seaside communities in New Jersey with an amusement park — Keansburg, Beach Haven, Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant, Atlantic City, Ocean City and Wildwood.
The most recent of the parks to open and continue operating is Fantasy Island in Beach Haven, which opened in 1984. The Gillian family, which owned Wonderland Pier, opened a site in Sea Isle City that lasted only a few years and was hurt by Hurricane Sandy.
Each of the parks is in a tourism area of about the same size and, excluding Wildwood which has three parks and more than 100 rides, has about a couple of dozen rides.
Levchuk said they all operate on the same ticket model, using wristbands for large groups.
The major difference, he pointed out, is that every one of the other amusement parks has alcohol available in the park, directly adjacent to the park or throughout the town.
“Ocean City has the only amusement park at the Jersey shore that does not sell alcohol,” Levchuk said, adding that it’s also the only one of the communities that does not have legalized games of chance or midway games.
“Legalized games of chance will never be available in Ocean City, just like alcohol will not be available,” he said, noting they are big revenue drivers.
Levchuk said all seven of the amusement parks are family-owned, providing operators with generational knowledge and skill of how to operate these types of facilities. He said that’s why corporate America has not come in and set up shop anywhere at the shore.
“Zero of them are interested in coming to Ocean City. So if they’re not, and they’re the most likely to be successful at doing it, I don’t know who else would,” Levchuk said.
Other challenges of operating an amusement park in Ocean City are the short season, only eight to 10 weeks to cover 52 weeks of expense, weather-dependence and expensive maintenance.
Statewide hurdles include the high cost of land, property taxes and insurance; the requirement to hire certified staff members; and a “burdensome regulatory process.”
“There’s not a person on this committee that would not, if we had to pick and choose what would we do at 600 Boardwalk, who wouldn’t say do an amusement park,’” he said. “But because of my knowledge and expertise over the years, a lifetime of being involved in amusement parks, I’m the only one who can confidently say out of the group that that can’t be redone.”
Levchuk said that while the city has only 25 entertainment attractions in the Boardwalk Zone, there is a wide variety and the number has been increasing.
“I hope people aren’t sitting there scratching their head, saying, ‘Man, only 25 things to do on the Ocean City boardwalk?’ I’ll give you something to do each night for a month with the amount of things we have to do on the boardwalk that are different,” he said.
Levchuk said while the boardwalk lost Wonderland, it gained such things as escape rooms, miniature golf courses and movie theaters.
– STORY and PHOTO by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
