Hotelier and developer has harsh words for group threatening to sue
OCEAN CITY — Eustace Mita called City Council’s June 25 vote “a win for Ocean City.”
Council voted 5-2 in favor of designating the former Wonderland Pier amusement park site at 600 Boardwalk as “an area in need of rehabilitation.” It has been a designation Mita has been seeking for more than a year to build what he has proposed as a 252-room, seven-story hotel atop 375 parking spaces. The property isn’t zoned for a hotel.
“It’s a win for Ocean City because you had the silent majority who clearly were in favor of it. Three years ago I went to the boardwalk merchants, Asbury Avenue merchants, and some members of the Chamber of Commerce, and asked them to get involved,” the hotelier and developer said in an interview early Wednesday morning, July 1.
“When it got voted down (by council in August 2025), that vote awoke the sleeping giant, which is a business community. The number one revenue generator for Ocean City is tourism, and the number one supporter of tourism is a place to stay, this hotel, so I think it was a total win for Ocean City,” Mita said.
Although five members of council voted for the rehab designation, most said they plan to follow the recommendations of the Boardwalk Subcommittee’s 85-page report released June 12 that supports zoning for upscale hotel rooms and a strong entertainment component, but not a project that overwhelms the boardwalk or the nearby neighborhood.
Asked about council members’ comments about a compromise project for the parcel, Mita said, “We want to do what’s right for Ocean City, what’s right in size, what’s right. We’re open to discussion on anything and everything … so we’ll wait and see what happens. We just passed step one.”
During the City Council meeting June 25 at the Ocean City Music Pier, citizens and representatives of merchant groups weighed in against and for the rehab designation.
“It’s the same voices who are not for it, but yet nobody came up with an alternative in that regard,” Mita said. “I saw a pro forma on somebody saying that they had a plan for Wonderland and they had it under agreement. I had no idea what or who that was, so there’s a lot of rumors going down on out there.
“I would just tell you that (vote) definitively was a big win for Ocean City because we need a revitalization for America’s Greatest Family Resort,” he said. “We haven’t had a new capital infusion of any type in the city, much less a hotel, in half a century.”
Mita said he is not worried with advocacy group Ocean City 2050 planning to sue to overturn council’s vote.
“I’m not concerned about that in the least. They’re going to do what they’re going to do. But here’s what I would say about Ocean City 2050. How many people are really behind it? They don’t represent the majority of Ocean City,” Mita said.
“What have they done to contribute to Ocean City at all? I mean, at all. They’re not part of the Chamber of Commerce, not part of the Asbury Avenue retail merchants, they’re not part of the boardwalk merchants. What have they done to contribute?
“Anybody can hate and anybody can complain,” he continued, “but I ask, what has 2050 done to contribute to the city of Ocean City, to the revitalization, to putting their money where their mouth is? I can give you the answer: zero.”
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
