They want property referred to Planning Board, say it will help businesses
OCEAN CITY — Ocean City Council took no action on the Wonderland Pier property during the meeting Oct. 9, but a contingent of business owners and business groups wish they had.
The public comment session at the meeting lasted nearly two hours as a host of people stood up to say they wanted council to revisit the Aug. 21 vote about the former amusement park property at 600 Boardwalk.
In August, council voted 6-1 against referring the property to the Planning Board to get its recommendation on whether it qualified as an area in need of rehabilitation. That meeting featured about two hours of impassioned public comment as well, both for and against the referral, which property owner Eustace Mita needed as an initial step to build a 252-room luxury hotel there. The referral was not about the proposed $150 million hotel project, but many considered it that way.
The majority of the citizen comment Aug. 21 was against the hotel and the referral. That was switched up at last week’s meeting, when most of the commentary was in favor of either the hotel, just making the referral for whatever would replace the amusement park, or both. There also was opposition.
The gathering of pro-business forces came after the Sept. 25 meeting, at which council Vice President Pete Madden asked his colleagues to reconsider their August vote. That move drew surprise from a few council members who didn’t expect it and angry comments from opponents in the public furious it would be reconsidered.
Much of the comments last week centered around the need for something to replace the amusement park. Wonderland Pier closed this time last year after owner Jay Gillian, who sold the property to Mita in early 2021 but leased it back for four more years, announced in August 2024 the nearly 60-year-old park would close because it was no longer financially viable.
Wonderland Pier anchored the north end of the boardwalk’s business district and many of those who spoke up said since it closed, business has suffered not only on the boardwalk but also downtown.
Chuck Bangle of Manco and Manco Pizza, another iconic business on the boardwalk, said they are one of the largest employers on the boardwalk with 285 to 300 employees, but was “comfortable” with 220 this year. He said the pizza shop’s Eighth Street location could have shut down because “that end of the boardwalk is dead.”
Bangle said he wasn’t imploring council to support the hotel, but to refer the property to the Planning Board to see what could be built there instead.
Johnson’s Popcorn owner John Stauffer said the biggest change he has seen over the decades of being in business is the proliferation of condos that have decreased the number of people who come for short stays and support the businesses on the boardwalk.
He argued that an upscale hotel like Congress Hall in Cape May or the del Coronado in California would be an economic driver. Stauffer said if the hotel project didn’t go through, he might have to close his Sixth Street location. (Johnson’s also has stores at Eighth and 14th streets on the Boardwalk.)
He told council it has to decide if Ocean City would continue to be a great resort or just a place for second homes and condos.
Representatives of the Downtown Merchants Association, the Boardwalk Merchants Association and the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce also spoke in favor of referring the property to the Planning Board.
Downtown Merchants President Caitlyn Quirk, owner of businesses on Asbury Avenue, said her group voted almost unanimously in favor of Mita’s proposal and said nothing is going to be built at the site without it earning rehabilitation status.
“To think we can fix it with the Master Plan is wishful thinking,” she said, referring to council comments that a Master Plan review was needed. That, she said, could leave the site vacant for five or 10 more years. And if that happened, she said, all of the businesses would pay the price in opportunity and hurt the resort’s reputation.
Quirk also slammed Ocean City 2050 and Save Wonderland, two groups that have opposed the hotel. “Shame on you,” she said, adding people have chosen to live in a resort community and get the benefits of what it offers, but are risking the future of businesses.
She asked council to think about the future of the resort, which needs to stay competitive with younger generations who need something new and exciting.
Quirk also noted council President Terry Crowley Jr. should name a woman to a subcommittee studying the boardwalk. (The current membership of the subcommittee is all male.)
Boardwalk Merchants President Wes Kazmarck urged council to reconsider the vote, saying he is a third-generation business owner. He said his father and Councilman Jody Levchuk’s father, another boardwalk business owner, were “front and center” years ago during the fight over Blue Laws that closed most boardwalk businesses on Sundays.
Kazmarck said his No. 1 priority is Ocean City’s reputation and he doesn’t like the dramatics, which include “unfounded accusations” against public servants and anonymous text messages that are hurting that reputation. “This is not how we do things,” he said.
The business community came out to the meeting, he said, to voice their concerns and make rational points about why sending the property to the Planning Board “is absolutely necessary.”
Janet Galante, vice president of the chamber, said the council vote isn’t for a specific project but a procedural step to allow the Planning Board to determine if the property qualifies for rehabilitation.
Not voting for that, she said, was a missed opportunity for thoughtful consideration and dialogue about the future of the property. She said the chamber urged council to reconsider.
Real estate professional Burt Wilkins, speaking on behalf of the city’s Tourism Commission, said the council vote is not about Mita’s project but about having the Planning Board determine what can be done at the “significant” boardwalk site.
Hank Glaser of Shriver’s Salt Water Taffy, the oldest business on the boardwalk and one of the oldest in Ocean City, said no one wants the hotel.
“None of us wants this hotel; we all want an amusement park,” Glaser said. “That’s what our preference is. It’s made the boardwalk work all these years. But, he said, “it’s not going to come back.”
Growing up in Atlantic City, he said he watched how one major large property after another was torn down with nothing to replace it, hurting that resort.
Ocean City has the “wonderful opportunity” to replace Wonderland with a beautiful, $150 million hotel, but City Council “killed it.”
He said council should refer it to the Planning Board.
“I’m pleading with you. Keep it going. Just keep the process going,” he said.
Mark Grimes, who said he has been selling real estate for more than 30 years, said there had been fierce debate when Ocean City wanted to build a new high school, but it got voted down twice before it was finally approved. That, he said, was a great decision.
He said he is all for the hotel, which he said would bring more people to the resort. “I hope you go to the next step,” Grimes said.
Joel Richard of Ocean City Parasail and Pirate Voyages said although his business is situated on the bay, he believes the hotel would bring in more tourists, offering faster turnover. His daughter also spoke in favor of the hotel, saying she hoped to take over the family business one day, but saw how that business and others were affected after Wonderland closed.
Joe Del Sordo, another longtime boardwalk business owner, said the hotel would not fix everything, but it would anchor that end of the boardwalk and start drawing more people to the resort just because of the media attention it would draw if approved and while it was under construction.
Mark Raab said he was speaking on behalf of his family, which may be the biggest property owners on the boardwalk with Tee Time miniature golf, three buildings extending from Wonderland to the water park and the Golden Galleon at 11th Street.
Raab said the last five years have been troubling for the north end of the boardwalk and that the closing of Wonderland has left a void. He said in that time their costs for taxes, maintenance and insurance have risen considerably and they depend on their tenants, many who have been with them for decades, to pay those costs, while they try to keep their rents reasonable.
He said the siblings are trying to hold onto those properties as their parents’ legacy, but time is not on their side.
Raab said they can wait five or 10 years to see what happens with the city’s Master Plan and they don’t want to be forced to sell the properties their parents worked so hard to obtain.
More condos and townhomes will not draw more tourists, he added, but the city has an opportunity to work with a proven hotel developer building a destination property. Raab said if the family is forced to sell, it will be outside investment groups that will own a major portion of the boardwalk.
There were more business owners and citizens who spoke in favor of referring the property to the Planning Board, but others also reiterated their opposition.
Both Jim Kelly, of advocacy group Ocean City 2050, and Bill Merritt of Friends of OCNJ History & Culture said council President Crowley has put forward the right approach, a subcommittee to look at the boardwalk as a whole and put forth its recommendations. (See related story.)
They said it would be quicker than the rehabilitation process, especially if there is litigation, which they have threatened, and that it would be a better and holistic model of how Ocean City could plan for its future.
Although council listened to all of the citizen comment, once it ended, they simply made the motion to adjourn without taking any action.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
