Councilman gives update on negotiations with developer
OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Council sent questions to developer Eustace Mita related to the development of the Wonderland Pier property, but the developer’s recent answers just raised more questions.
At the Oct. 9 council meeting, Second Ward Councilman Keith Hartzell reported an update of the negotiations with Mita on the future of the 600 Boardwalk property. Council designated the property as “an area in need of rehabilitation” back in June and has been negotiating with Mita since.
Mita has proposed a 252-room, seven-story upscale hotel atop parking at the future amusement park site, which is not zoned for hotels. City Council members have said they are open to upscale hotel rooms as part of a development on the property in the On-Boardwalk Zone, but have stated they won’t accept a hotel that size.
Hartzell did not reveal any specifics and asked the public for time as they continue to work out a compromise with Mita. He did say that after going over answers to the questions council sent to him, “the best way to say it is that they raised more questions.”
Council was waiting for the developer to return from work on a project in Ireland to get answers to new questions council has posed.
“On our side, we continue to work on a plan. Folks, give us time. There is a lot of roadmapping and details we have to come to grips with,” Hartzell said. “We want a seminal vote so this is going to take some time to list all the things that we think (the development) should have, whether it be height limitations, room limitations, parking.”
The councilman said they are working up a master list of “possible things that could come up” so that when Mita looks at it, he’ll be able to see, ‘OK, this is kind of what they’re looking for.”
Hartzell said that should make it a “little easer to get this negotiation jump started a little bit.”
The Wonderland site has been sitting mostly empty and quiet since the amusement park owner, Mayor Jay Gillian, closed the park permanently in mid-October 2024, saying it was no longer financially viable because Ocean City could not sustain two amusement parks. Playland’s Castaway Cove amusement park is a few blocks south on the boardwalk.
Mita bought the larger property at the corner of Sixth Street and Boardwalk in early 2021 after banks foreclosed on some $8 million in loans Gillian had taken out. The foreclosure happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, which took a toll on the park, but Wonderland had already been in financial difficulty. Mita leased the park back to Gillian to continue operating it, which he did for four more summer seasons before announcing the Ocean City landmark would close permanently after just shy of 60 years. Gillian’s father, Roy, built the park and ran it before him.
After Wonderland closed, Mita made public presentations on what he wanted to do at the site, offering up the large hotel with 10-12 storefronts and saying he planned to keep a few iconic rides, including the towering Ferris wheel and century-old carousel as part of the project.
However, in late September he revealed the property has been deteriorating and that a wall was collapsing under the deck at the back of the park. Mita said he would have to demolish the Ferris wheel for safety reasons before the crumbling infrastructure reached it. He did not give any indication of what would happen to the historic carousel, which has been dormant since the park’s closure and sits in the large building abutting the boardwalk.
Mita had said that City Council is basically in the driver’s seat to determine what gets built on the property, but Hartzell’s comments at the meeting reveal there is a long way to go before a compromise is reached.
In the interim, a number of advocacy groups have sued Ocean City in Superior Court in Cape May County to reverse the rehabilitation designation. Groups and neighbors have been fighting Mita’s hotel proposal since it was announced, fearing it would change the character of the boardwalk and nearby neighborhoods.
At last week’s council meeting, Harztell said there are a lot of diverse opinions among council, but they’re committed to building a consensus on what they want to see constructed at the site.
“We’re committed to working that out and we’re committed to moving forward,” he said, later adding, “I feel very good about it. I think we’re pretty much in the same direction.”
Still, he asked the public to be patient.
“Give us some time to work out those details but I feel very confident, hopefully 30-60 days, somewhere in there,” he said. “We have some very talented people up here that are going to help out with this who have a ton of experience in that. Mr. (Dave) Winslow, Mr. (Sean) Barnes, Mr. (Jim) Kelly have all been involved in this type of work,” he added about his fellow council members.
“All other opinions will be a huge part of this as well,” Hartzell said, reiterating past comments that concerns and ideas from community members and groups will be taken into consideration. He pointed out the three council members were part of the Boardwalk Subcommittee. The subcommittee spent more than half a year studying the boardwalk and presented recommendations on what is needed and what should be allowed, including zoning. They studied the entire boardwalk, including the Wonderland parcel.
The upshot of the June presentation was that the report would not support Mita’s seven-story hotel as proposed. The subcommittee does consider the 600 Boardwalk property a “once-in-a-generation development opportunity that will requiring zoning reform to unlock its potential.
Overall, the subcommittee wants to maintain the character of the boardwalk but must “update and elevate” what it offers to visitors to remain a competitive tourist destination.
Among 10 specific recommendations was allowing hotels that don’t overwhelm boardwalk visitors or neighborhoods, are set back, allow light and air, and have entertainment options open to the public.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff