OCEAN CITY — Both challengers in the Ocean City mayoral election have thrown their support behind construction of a hotel at the former Wonderland Pier site on the boardwalk.
“A luxury hotel would be a great idea,” Councilman Keith Hartzell said before a large crowd April 28 at the Ocean City Tabernacle.
“To be crystal clear, we need to build a hotel. We need to work with the person who owns the property to get the best solution for what the people of this town want,” Council Vice President Pete Madden said.
While Hartzell mentioned a “boutique” hotel, he was referring to a smaller footprint off the boardwalk as opposed to the plan proposed by Eustace Mita for an eight-story hotel, which Madden supports.
Both see the concept of a hotel at the northern end of the boardwalk business district as key to drawing visitors back to that area, where Wonderland Pier was an anchor for more than 60 years until closing in October 2024. The property was used only minimally in summer 2025.
Incumbent Jay Gillian said the issue should have been resolved long ago. He said council and Mita should have gotten together to work out a compromise on the site.
“The owner, the council need to get into a room and figure it out. If they would have done that from the beginning, we would not be sitting here talking about this and it wouldn’t have divided the city so much,” he said.
Candidates also discussed their top priorities, the work of the Boardwalk Subcommittee, beach replenishment, parking, tourism, taxes, affordability, the resort’s image, BYOB and flooding.
It was a cordial affair, with handshakes and hugs at the beginning and both verbal and physical shows of support throughout the evening.
Opening statements
Gillian, who is seeking a fifth straight term, touted his experience.
“I’ve proven that I get things done,” he said. “You’ll hear a lot of ideas tonight, but leadership isn’t about talk; it’s about what you can actually accomplish. It’s about having the experience to turn plans into results. It’s about avoiding promises that sound good but don’t work and don’t deliver.”
Gillian said the island has changed for the better since he took office.
“Our work is not done, and we will continue to change. With the support of City Council, my administration has accomplished all of this with no-frill budgets, low taxes and absolute fiscal responsibility,” he said.
Hartzell, who represents the Second Ward and long served in at-large position, said he is seeking the top seat to provide for the needs and wants of the community, “ensuring that everyone, all residents, have been heard, acknowledged and acted on in ways that protect our family-friendly values and neighborhoods.”
“Our tradition and our rich culture and our history have made us one of the best places in the world to visit and to live, work and worship. And it’s because of those values that started as a Methodist retreat.”
He said his main issues, which he explained came from going door to door seven days a week, are the former Wonderland Pier site, aka 600 Boardwalk, and parking.
“Things that you told me, things that were important to you became my platform. I will be a strong leader that plans for the future and moves this city forward,” Hartzell said.
Madden, a 12-year member of the governing body who has served as president and vice president, said he would bring responsibility to the position.
“Responsibility to protect what makes this town special, responsibility to make smart decisions about our future and responsibility to put people ahead of politics every time,” he said. “I’m running for mayor because our future demands leadership that takes responsibility, thinks long-term and puts the community first.”
Madden said he believes in progress on the boardwalk — “It’s the heartbeat of Ocean City” — strengthening Asbury Avenue as a year-round economic engine and making the city affordable so seniors can remain in their homes.
“This election isn’t about the past. It’s about where Ocean City goes next,” he said.
What is the first thing you would do?
Gillian said the first thing he would do after taking office is to ensure the beach replenishment work that was recently promised comes through.
“We have a lot of work to make sure that that gets done,” he said.
Hartzell focused more on the long-term.
“The first order of business would be to work on 600 Boardwalk,” he said, noting it is something that has divided the city.
“When the town’s divided, we’ll get together and compromise and find consensus,” he said.
Hartzell said he has been questioning constituents about what they would like to see at the site “that matches our town, protects our neighborhoods and makes us feel like Ocean City.”
He said it is imperative that the community works together to “make something work up there for everyone, that everyone has a voice in it and everybody has a part of it so that we can all be proud of it.”
Madden said he would sit down with the senior staff of the administration and to go over the workforce to “make sure we have the right people in the right positions.”
“For me, it’s all about the people. Whether it’s in your personal life, it’s in your business or it’s in the city. The people are your most important asset,” he said. “The first thing we do is make sure that everybody’s on the same page and we’re starting to move forward together, and then start to meet with City Council to make sure the council, the mayor, the administration, we’re all on the same page, because if we’re not, things don’t get done.”
Do you support the hotel project?
Mita’s plan is for an eight-story, $170 million, 252-room hotel with 10 to 12 storefronts.
Hartzell said he supports keeping the boardwalk as it is, noting that Seventh Street Surf Shop has plans to open two more stores “because they believe in that as a destination.”
“But at the same time, a luxury hotel would be a great idea,” he said, adding that Mita owns two such boutique hotels in Avalon that would be smaller than Mita’s plan at 600 Boardwalk..
“I think it’s something that he’s good at … and I think we can get everything we need, which is a vibrant boardwalk and a great luxury hotel with all the amenities and everything you need to have a great vacation,” Hartzell said.
Madden fully supports Mita’s plan for a hotel.
“It’s been sitting vacant too long and we have a proven brand that’s come into our community looking to invest a tremendous amount of capital,” he said. “So we have to get together to see what’s the best way to do that.”
Madden said it is necessary to have the property deemed an area in need of rehabilitation to move forward.
“Then we can sit down with the property owner to get the best solution for Ocean City,” he said. “It’s imperative that we move forward sooner than later to do that.”
Gillian said the issue should have been addressed.
“We have a passionate city, which is understandable, but that’s why you have policies and procedures and strong leadership would take care of that,” he said.
Do you support the Boardwalk Subcommittee?
City Council President Terry Crowley Jr. appointed a Boardwalk Subcommittee in the fall to review the zoning on the entire boardwalk, not just at the former Wonderland site. It is expected to make its recommendations to council at some point in May.
Madden, who twice voted to request the Planning Board determine whether the property met criteria for being in need of rehabilitation, said it’s “great to get citizens together in a committee to talk about and get ideas” but that the issue must be decided by governmental bodies.
“We need to get it back through the government process. We need to get it to the Planning Board, the Zoning Board, and we need to go through the Master Plan to do that,” he said. “It’s going to be great to get some recommendations from the committee, but they’re non-binding recommendations. So we take that, we listen and that’s what we use to negotiate with the property owner to get the best solution up there and then follow the Master Plan for a further, deeper discussion and investigation into the Boardwalk Zone to get the best solution there as well.”
Gillian agreed that “it’s always good to have a committee and get the community’s advice” but “you’ve got to have a parallel path when getting things done.”
He recommended hiring professionals to study the city’s most popular business district. From his time as owner of Wonderland, he noted the boardwalk has been losing its appeal for decades, in part because of the change in how people vacation.
“I’m sure they’re going to have a lot of good recommendations for the boardwalk but it’s going to take more than just one committee,” Gillian said. “We actually need to bring professionals in to look at the whole boardwalk.”
He noted small businesses in the Garden State are “failing right and left,” noting the challenges of a short season and employees costs.
Hartzell said he supports the subcommittee but it’s the mayor who should be leading the way.
“When you’re the mayor, you’re the CEO, the leader, and you’re the one that takes charge,” he said. “They set the agenda and then they go and sell that agenda.”
How do you reverse negative tourism trends?
Gillian again recommended hiring professionals to look at what the future looks like and the demographic trends, but noted there are so many things available to catch visitors’ attention that were not around in the past.
Hartzell said it’s necessary to be proactive.
“When you have a bad June, but you have a lot, and you have a beach area that’s not being utilized, you jump in and say, ‘What can we do to bring people down there?’” he said, referring to the area east of the Sports & Civic Center. “You put some activity in front of that parking lot to draw people in. You’ve got to be able to roll like that right away, so when you start seeing those numbers go down in June. You say, ‘What can we do? What do we need to do to make this better?’”
Madden said it’s vital to look ahead and being willing to change.
“You can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. We have to continually adapt to the changing environment and our changing demographic,” Madden said. “Forward thinking is the main thing that needs to come out of the Mayor’s Office to the tourism commission to make sure that we’re ahead of the curve versus behind the curve.”
Why have taxes increased?
Instead of answering the question, Hartzell talked about the budgeting process.
“I think it’s something to get in and sit down with everybody and really start afresh. See who you have, see all the assets that you have, and then see where everything basically is,” he said. “You don’t want to lay anybody off, but can you put some jobs together or do you have retirements coming up that you don’t have to fill?”
He said his goal would be to keep taxes stable.
“That would what I’ll be trying to do and you just do that through hard work and teamwork,” Hartzell said.
Madden said when times are tough, spending less is the key.
“Everywhere we turn, costs increase — it doesn’t matter where you go — and it’s a tough thing that we have to work with, but we don’t have an income problem, we have an expense problem. The money that we spend we have to be diligent where we spend it, how we spend it and look to spend it the right way,” he said.
He said the city should be using its increasing ratable base to offset tax increases.
“If we have balanced development, balanced development allows for a natural tax increase without putting the burden onto the tax rate each year,” Madden said. “We have to work on our expenses. We have to continue to maintain that income and we’ll have a balanced budget.”
In a rare show of disagreement, Gillian fired back that using a ratable increase in the operating budget is “irresponsible.”
“If we hadn’t used our rateables all these years and taken advantage of these low interest rates, that would have been criminal on our end of it,” he said.
Gillian said the public demands a certain level of service and that costs money.
“It would be irresponsible to go zero budgets, because it might be good for one year, but you never know what’s coming up, and you always have to be prepared,” he said.
Do you support a parking garage?
Gillian said the city has been actively increasing the number of available spots downtown by purchasing multiple lots between Eighth and Ninth Streets on Central Avenue, and instituted a web-based system for lots near the boardwalk.
He said there are plenty of spaces for everyone to park, they just may not be convenient.
“We’re a seasonal seashore resort. That’s what happens in these seashore resorts,” he said. “At the end of the day, you all found a spot. You’ll always find a spot,” he said.
He said the city would continue to try to add spots but said he was not in favor of a parking garage, citing a cost of $30 million to $40 million.
Conversely, Hartzell said a parking garage would be “essential,” noting he has visited communities where a public-private partnership was used to build one.
“That would be my first order of business is to put a garage in here without a big expense,” he said.
One of his campaign pillars has been increasing the number of off-street parking spots provided at increasingly larger homes.
“When you get to four bedrooms, you should have four off-street parking spots,” he said.
Madden noted when he was a teen, his family would come to the island, park their car and ride bicycles everywhere.
“There’s been a parking problem for decades,” he said, adding he agreed that a public-private partnerships is a good idea.
“It’s a way to take the tax burden off the citizens and work with the private companies to create that garage,” he said.
The real estate agent disagreed with changing zoning to require more off-street spots, noting many people use their garages for storing beach gear instead of cars.
“I think we do the best we can to work with what we have and create a garage,” he said.
Gillian said the administration has studied building a garage and decided not to move forward.
“It sounds good, and it makes people feel good, but it doesn’t work,” he said. “For those few inconvenient days that you might have to park a block away or something like that, do you really want to spend $30 million?”
How do you maintain the city’s image?
“We’re America’s Greatest Family Resort. We’re the stewards of that. It’s our responsibility, especially as mayor, to keep that in the forefront of everybody’s mind,” Madden said. “The family resort requires hitting all levels of the family — the grandparents, parents, the kids — because that’s who comes down here. So we need to have activities and we need to have events for all three of those demographics to make sure that all three are coming down here and continue to want to come down here.”
Gillian said the city upgrades its events every season, noting there are more than 100 scheduled throughout the year.
“We take care of our kids all the way to our grandparents between our rec programs and all the different things that our businesses do,” he said. “I think we do a great job, but again, you’ve got to keep looking at the future. Who are our demographics?”
Hartzell said to shout it from the rooftops.
“When you have a brand, you just want to remind people constantly about your brand. It’s not bad to repeat when it comes to Ocean City, New Jersey, our greatest family resort,” he said.
He believes people visit the city because it’s a safe place to create memories.
“We have to have activities that are safe and that they will be entertained from grandmom, grandpop all the way down to the grandkids,” Hartzell said.
Do you support a playground at Fifth Street?
Hartzell has repeatedly called for the city to build a community playground on the beach between Fifth and Sixth streets to create another attraction for children and families, even offering to donate vacant land to the city to help pay for the playground.
He backed away from the idea a bit, saying “there’s a lot of other things we can do in that area that would be lesser money to start” and suggesting the city’s Community Services Department could be successful in attracting people to the area.
“It doesn’t come down to one idea. It comes down to multiple ideas and an open mind to accept criticism on your idea and move along and get a better idea going,” he said.
Madden said the idea behind building a playground was intended to draw more people to that end of the boardwalk.
“The key is we are trying to work with the boardwalk merchants to being activity down to that end of the boardwalk,” he said.
Madden favors trying 10 ideas and expecting to fail on some because failure is part of the learning process.
“It’s about getting ideas, working with them, experimenting to see what’s best for Ocean City and what’s going to help best bring activity down that end of the boardwalk — until we build a hotel,” he said.
Noting he had worked on that end of the boardwalk for 50 years, Gillian reiterated that the culture of youth is different today.
“When we first came here, there was no air conditioners, there was no kitchen, there was no TV cable and all that kind of stuff,” he said, referring to how going to the boardwalk the main means of entertainment in the summers.
Do you support BYOB?
Ocean City was founded by four Methodist ministers in 1879 as a dry town, meaning no alcohol sales are allowed. Restaurant customers are prohibited from bringing a bottle of wine with them for dinner.
A referendum that would have allowed BYOB service was shot down in 2012 by Ocean City voters by an overwhelming margin, yet there are supper clubs that allow members to bring and consume their own wine.
Noting he does not drink alcohol, Gillian said “this is an easy one for me. I don’t believe in it.”
He added that he would want the community to decide such an important matter.
“I guess it’s all about having good food. So if you have good food and good restaurants, they should do well,” Gillian said. “When you come to Ocean City, you know what Ocean City is all about. … I think that’s what keeps us America’s Greatest Family Resort.
Hartzell agreed.
“It’s all about brand, and our band is we’re dry and people like it that way because it’s a family atmosphere. I don’t think you change one of the most successful brand in America that way when you’re doing so well,” he said. “It’s going to stay dry until the overwhelming amount of people that live here decide that they would rather have it wet.”
“Every business looks for a niche and what they can do differently, what they can do better than everyone else. In Ocean City, the niche is it’s a dry town. I think it’s important that we have that, we maintain that,” Madden said, adding the dinner clubs provide “a great option for people to join and be able to bring a bottle of wine to dinner.”
How would you guarantee enough funding for beach replenishment?
“Get very close to Congressman Van Drew,” Hartzell joked.
The Second District legislator steered nearly $100 million in replenishment work to southern New Jersey shore towns in the past couple of months.
“It’s on everybody’s mind at all times that we need those federal funds and we have to be steadfast in staying on that because it’s not a guarantee,” he said.
Madden said it’s all about networking.
“It’s imperative that we work with the federal, state, county and local officials to be able to make sure that we are networking within that group and making sure that we have the money coming to us year after year,” he said.
Madden also suggested “tapping into” the many successful people in the community to get ideas, potentially funding and help to do that.
Gillian said his administration has been very successful in acquiring money for shore protection.
“We’ve got island-wide tip-to-tip beach replenishment now,” he said, noting more work is set for this spring.
He said U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew has done “a great job” and believes that he has a program that’s going to be there every year.
What can be done to protect homes and businesses from flooding?
Madden said the city has done a lot of work to mitigate flooding but noted that “we’re on an island.”
He said there the city would study any idea that comes along.
“If there’s grant funding out there and if there’s ideas out there, we’re going to look into them and we’re going to do our best to continually work on the flood mitigation because we can’t stop with that,” he said.
Gillian said flood mitigation has been one of his administration’s biggest successes.
“All our pipes were 100 years old. Half the pipes were gone,” he said.
But he agreed with Madden that the battle must continue.
“It’s one of those things you’re going to constantly do; you really don’t have a choice,” he said. “And I think, with the help of council, I think Ocean City has been at the forefront for that.”
He noted that the city recently received a $5 million grant to dredge and build up an island in the backbay.
“So again, I think that’s one thing we do excellent here is prepare ourselves for that,” Gillian said.
Hartzell agreed that “it’s a constant program that has to be done.” He said all of council has supported the efforts.
The debate was sponsored by the Fideri News Network, which is the parent company of a host of websites in Pennsylvania and New Jersey including ocnjdaily.com. The Ocean City Tabernacle co-sponsored the debate.
STORY by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff