Wonderland Pier owner reveals aspects of latest hotel proposal, but limits the details
OCEAN CITY — A hotel that would be built to replace Wonderland Pier would be set back from the Plaza Place neighborhood, where residents have been fiercely fighting a hotel, and set back from the the boardwalk, according to Eustace Mita, who acknowledged if he knew all the headaches he would encounter, he never would have bought the property five years ago.
Giving the Sentinel a tour Friday morning, Sept. 18, to show how the infrastructure of the former amusement park is deteriorating, Mita talked a little about his plans to put a hotel there and how frustrating the process has been.
“I’m just telling the truth,” Mita told the newspaper. “If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t. Why do I need the headache? We have a great company. We’re rated number one by Trip Advisor in every city we serve.”
ICONA Resorts has high-end hotels in Avalon, Cape May, Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach, among others. Mita also has Achristavest Fine Home Builders that develops luxury homes.
In early 2021, Mita bought the parcels where the amusement park stood for nearly 60 years. When Mita bought the property for approximately $14 million, saving it from foreclosure, he and Jay Gillian talked about their collaboration to save the iconic park, which had been the cornerstone of the north end of the business section of the boardwalk.
Mita leased it back to Gillian, who ran the park for four more seasons before closing it in mid-October 2024, saying it was no longer financially viable.
Gillian’s efforts to maintain the park led to his declaring personal bankruptcy in December 2025, although that did not stop voters from electing him in May to his fifth term as mayor of Ocean City.
Since the park’s closure, debate has swirled in the Ocean City community about Mita’s plans to spend $170 million to build a high-end hotel with 10-12 storefronts at the site.
City Council designated the property as “an area in need of redevelopment” in June of this year, after vacillating on that designation for almost a year.
Several citizens groups and individuals have sued to overturn the rehab designation, which Mita said he needed to build a hotel in the On-Boardwalk Zone, which does not allow hotels. Mita has been in negotiations with City Council over what he can build at the site.
A City Council Boardwalk Subcommittee spent about half a year studying the boardwalk and its zoning and released its recommendations report in early June, only weeks before approving the rehab designation.
The report supported allowing some high-end hotel rooms in a mixed-use site, but did not support Mita’s publicly released proposal for a 252-room, seven-story hotel atop ground level parking. The report focused more on the need for entertainment as a priority for the future of Ocean City tourism.
Neither Mita nor City Council has revealed details about their negotiations. Second Ward Councilman Keith Hartzell, saying he was speaking on behalf of council at its Sept. 10 meeting, said whatever would be allowed at the Wonderland property would be council’s plan, taking in input from citizens groups and other stakeholders.
Ocean City’s business community has rallied around supporting Mita’s hotel plans, saying business has suffered for the two seasons without an attraction drawing people to that end of the boardwalk.
“It’s really not even in my control anymore,” Mita told the Sentinel on Wednesday, Sept. 16, before the tour. “I mean we own it, yes, but I would say that they (council) are pretty much dictating the size and that type of thing. As we speak we are downsizing. Once we get a final decision from council, we’ll show it to the public.”
“It’s in City Council’s hands, even the hotel is in their hands. Once they designate the rehab, they have control.”
Although the plan Mita spoke about earlier was a seven-story hotel atop ground-level parking, last week he asserted that he has already downsized what he originally wanted.
“We’re 50 feet lower than the original building. If you remember, we started out at nine stories, which would have equaled The Flanders Hotel and the Port-O-Call,” he said. “Then we went to eight. They weren’t satisfied with that so now we’re down to seven stories and 50 feet lower.”
Mita said he didn’t have the exact height of the building he is proposing now, but said the parking at the base “is even with the boardwalk.”
Noting the Plaza Place neighborhood, which is across Wayne Avenue from the former amusement park and where neighbors have fought the hotel, he pointed to the log flume ride, one of the few still standing. It abuts Wayne Avenue and he said it rises 50 feet. The proposed hotel, he said, would be inset from the Wayne Avenue property line by a minimum of 60 feet.
The hotel would also be tiered, rising higher as it goes toward the center. The first eve of the building facing Wayne Avenue would be 73 feet tall, he said.
“If you look at the log flume, which is on the property line, that’s 50 feet high,” he said. “The first thing people will see from Plaza Place is 73 feet high, but it will be a minimum of 60 feet from the property line.
“So really, instead of seeing the ugly log flume, the way eye perception works, (the hotel) won’t be any higher than the log flume from Plaza Place because the stories will go up higher as they go in,” Mita said. That is the latest incarnation of the hotel proposal he has given to City Council.
He added that the hotel would be at the center of the 600 Boardwalk property and would also be set back 80 feet from the boardwalk. “It will have a beautiful plaza, which will be open to the public and will have fire pits and the like. That’s really where we’re at.”
Mita did not provide any additional details about the development, saying that will wait until negotiations with council are concluded.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
At top, a conceptual drawing of the hotel Eustace Mita presented to the public in late 2024 and into 2025.