He will make formal application for a redevelopment zone before Ocean City Council in August
OCEAN CITY — Eustace Mita was “absolutely thrilled” with the recent opinion poll of Ocean City residents regarding his proposed 252-room, eight-story hotel at the site of the former Wonderland Pier amusement park at Sixth Street and Boardwalk.
A day after the poll was released July 10, Mita said he will make a formal application before Ocean City Council the third week of August for a redevelopment zone that would allow his hotel to be built there. High-rise hotels are not permitted uses on the boardwalk.
There is a council meeting scheduled for Aug. 21.
Ocean City 2050, an advocacy group formed in part in opposition to Mita’s plans for a $135 million to $150 million hotel at the Wonderland site, released the results of a poll of resort residents that showed 38 percent very opposed to his project and another 15 percent somewhat opposed. That is a total of 53 percent with some level of opposition. (See related story.)
The poll by the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP) at Rutgers University, commissioned by Ocean City 2050, also showed 21 percent of respondents very supportive of the hotel and another 23 percent somewhat supportive for a total of 44 percent; 3 percent were undecided.
Ocean City 2050 used those results to show a majority of residents opposed and in other findings, that 78 percent of residents would prefer other types of attractions rather than a hotel.
Mita, whose project would be called Icona at Wonderland, has a different interpretation.
“We were absolutely thrilled, thrilled, and I’ll tell you why because the way I read that is a couple ways,” Mita said. “Number one, 38 percent were against. But if you look at the undecided, don’t really care, the way I look at it that means 62 percent are for it.”
He pointed out that Ocean City 2050, which also operates a website called bigmistake.org in opposition to his hotel proposal, is the sponsor of the poll. Mita said that people in general tend to be more “motivated” to oppose things rather than support them.
Mita believes he can build a bigger coalition of support by answering some of the other concerns addressed in the poll.
He said 70 percent were concerned about a high-rise, but the “broad definition” of high-rise is 25 stories.
“The Flanders is nine stories. The Port-O-Call is nine stories,” he said about the other two big boardwalk hotels. “We’re eight, so we’re actually the shortest. We’re the shrimp of the litter when you consider height.”
Seventy-six percent were concerned about potential parking problems, but as he said in the past, the amusement park used to draw 3,000 visitors with no parking of its own and his hotel would have 375 spaces for a maximum occupancy of 1,000 guests.
“Once we educate them that there’s already a parking problem, and we’re bringing a parking solution, we’re just very bullish. We’re very optimistic and, you know, given the tenor of the study, we feel very good about it,” Mita said.
Another poll result showed 56 percent concerned about the possibility of alcohol being served at the hotel, but Mita said that isn’t going to happen.
“I always say words paint pictures in people’s minds, and fear is the correct word. It’s fear mongering. First of all, I don’t want it personally, OK? Second of all, our law in Ocean City trumps the state. The state can’t tell us what to do with liquor. That’s up to us,” Mita said about the resort.
Ocean City is a historically dry town with ordinances forbidding the sale of alcohol and covenants in most properties’ deeds that forbid the sale or manufacture of alcohol.
The owner of Icona Resorts, which operates high-end hotels in Cape May, Wildwood Crest, Avalon and Stone Harbor, said he didn’t expect Ocean City to change the law about alcohol in his lifetime and “maybe not in my children’s, so it’s a non-issue.”
Redevelopment zone
Mita said he wants to make a formal application for a redevelopment zone before council but is waiting to hear back from the governing body.
“It will be in a big forum so everybody can be there,” he said.
It will be a presentation on his plan, like those he made in the late fall, including at the Ocean City Free Public Library and the Ocean City Tabernacle. He said the fourth iteration of his hotel proposal hasn’t changed from those presentations.
“We’re going to make application as well,” he said.
If City Council approves it, it would go next to the Planning Board for a Master Plan consistency determination.
A redevelopment zone would speed the process to allow for a hotel to be built where it is not allowed by current zoning.
Ocean City 2050 and
Wonderland Commons
Ocean City 2050, working with Friends of OCNJ History & Culture and Save Wonderland, has offered an alternative for the amusement park site, Wonderland Commons, a private-public partnership with four components:
— A reimagined Wonderland Pier, a smaller park designed for young children and their families, focusing on lower costs, simple rides and “plenty of charm and moments of pure delight.”
— A digital entertainment center that they believe would be a tech-forward, immersive, year-round destination with VR experiences, escape rooms, projection games and interactive storytelling for teenagers and adults.
— Public attractions such as a free children’s playground, bandshell stage for live music and performances, a rooftop deck with ocean views and a rotating selection of food trucks featuring local chefs and regional street food classics.
— Low-rise, high-end lodging with rooftop pools, comfortable seating, retail and dining on the ground floor, blending into the neighborhood and boardwalk surroundings.
Mita said he met last week with Bill Merritt and Jim Kelly, who are among the founders of Ocean City 2050, and he talked to them about their project.
“I asked them three questions,” he said. “Number one, have you done an economic feasibility study? And they have not. Number two, have you looked at what it would cost to build? And they said they don’t have solid figures yet. And then thirdly, I said, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but that has to go into a redevelopment zone. And they said, no, they weren’t.”
Merritt disputes Mita’s characterization of their meeting. “That’s not what we said, at all,” Merritt wrote in response to an emailed question from the Sentinel.
“We actually told him we have a business plan, which we do. I gave him high level numbers in terms of return on investment and IRR (internal rate of return). We agreed to meet again to go through the plan in detail,” Merritt wrote about the meeting with Mita. “I told him we were doing one last turn on the numbers to reflect some new updates. I told him we would meet in two weeks. That was still the plan as of last week.
“I also told him we could build for about one third the cost of what he is saying it would cost him,” Merritt added. “I also told him ours would not require a redevelopment zone. His doesn’t either, nor does it qualify in any event. He just wants a tax break. We also have that answer in our frequently asked questions on the big mistake website. (bigmistake.org)
Mita said he would vote for a redevelopment zone at the Wonderland site even if it wasn’t for his project because “it’s good for the city.”
The financial benefit to the city is that if the hotel is built in the redevelopment zone, the city would get 95 percent of the taxes on it, rather than just 35 percent.
He believes the tax on his hotel could be as high as $1 million, so that would mean $950,000 in taxes annually coming into the city.
$20 million buyout
Mita said he has invested $20 million on the Wonderland site and that the bank has appraised it for $25 million.
In early 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he paid off $8 million in loans to stave off foreclosure of Wonderland and then leased the site back to amusement park owner Jay Gillian, Ocean City’s mayor, to continue running the park for another four years.
Gillian announced in August 2024 the park was no long financially viable — and that Ocean City could not sustain two amusement parks. He closed it permanently in mid-October 2024 after nearly 60 years in business. Playland’s Castaway Cove amusement park is a handful of blocks south on the boardwalk.
Mita said the site has continued to eat up his money.
“It’s like a black hole,” he said.
He pointed out if he were an out-of-town developer, he would have just put a chain-link fence around it, but “because I’m an Ocean City guy,” he has invested more since the park closed.
“We spent a couple hundred thousand painting it, opening up a new Ocean City Pizza Company there. We have the arcade in there, we have Ocean City Bike Rentals. It’s a money loser totally, but my goal was to have something nice on the north end of the boardwalk so we kept the boardwalk looking good.”
Asked during one of his public presentations in the fall if he would sell the property, he said if someone offered him $30 million he would.
He still would. For less.
“Absolutely,” he said. “It would save the aggravation. I have $20 million into it.”
“What I really care about is what is best for Ocean City,” Mita said, adding that Ocean City 2050 could purchase the property.
“Just get me out of my cost at $20 million,” he said.
He pointed out his luxury home-building company, Achristavest, just sold a house “four off the beach in Stone Harbor for $10 million and we sold a beachfront house for $16 million. That’s $26 million for two 60-by-110 lots, so this would be the bargain of the millennium.”
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff