OCEAN CITY — Eustace Mita’s attorney and four witnesses spent nearly an hour testifying before the Ocean City Planning Board on Jan. 7, trying to justify that his boardwalk property qualified as “an area in need of rehabilitation.”
It is a step Mita needs to move forward with his proposal to build a 252-room hotel where the Wonderland Pier amusement park stood.
The attorney, Keith A. Davis, a partner at Nehmad, Davis & Goldstein in Egg Harbor Township, and his witnesses ultimately were unsuccessful.
The planners split 4-4 on the designation, not moving forward with a recommendation for the 600 Boardwalk property, where the park closed in October 2024 after nearly 60 years in business.
Mita’s plan has been to spend $170 million building the eight-story hotel with 10-12 storefronts at the corner of Sixth Street and Boardwalk. After the meeting, he said he was waiting to confer with his attorney on what would happen next.
Testifying for Mita were Jody Arena, CEO of Caritas Construction; Matt Mowrer, an engineer working for O’Donnell and Naccarato Structural Engineers; Tiffany A. Morrissey, a licensed certified professional planner; and Will Morey, CEO of Morey’s Piers amusement park in Wildwood.
They laid out the case that the property met two criteria under state law for the rehab designation. There are six criteria in the law (40A:12A-14.a) and a property has to meet only one.
Davis said a significant portion of the structure of the property is in deteriorated or substandard condition and there is a pattern of vacancy, abandonment or underutilization of the properties in the area.
“We think both are squarely met,” he said.
Engineer
Mowrer said he investigated the property, going under the pier from the ocean side and the street side. He said there was heavy deterioration with spalling concrete, which happens when the metal rebar inside expands and pieces of concrete break free.
“These will worsen over time,” he said, presenting a series of photos to the planners. He also cited efflorescence, the damaging effects of salt water and air on the structure.
He pointed out corrosion of the embedded steel on planks and framing, noted a large crack on a main beam, deterioration of the concrete slab and places where there was temporary wood shoring up parts of the structure. He added that some of the concrete framing was in extremely poor condition.
Mowrer, prompted by the attorney, agreed that the property met the statutory criteria that its structures were in deteriorated or substandard condition and that it could lead to additional failures or potential collapse absent a program of rehabilitation.
He said the corrosion would continue until the planks could no longer support their own weight and would collapse, but he provided no time frame.
When Davis asked Mowrer if he were familiar with the partial collapse of the Spinnaker building in Sea Isle City, and whether something similar could happen at 600 Boardwalk, the engineer said it was possible.
In February 2023, one man was killed and two others injured when an eighth-floor balcony collapsed at the condominium complex at 3600 Boardwalk.
Mowrer said the type of deterioration was common in the region due to the saltwater and salty air.
“Absolutely, it’s always going to be worse the closer you get to the waterfront,” he said.
The engineer said he was not aware if there were any other inspections of the structure, whether by public entities or insurance companies.
General contractor
Arena presented cost estimates of repairs needed at the site to bring it up to standards.
He said in April the estimate of fixing the structure would be $3.899 million, but since then it has increased to about $5 million because of continued deterioration and market conditions.
Planning Board member Sean Barnes, the City Council liaison, questioned whether there was a third-party opinion on the work needed. When told the estimate was done in-house, Barnes pointed out that Mita is a partner in the construction company, suggesting a conflict of interest.
Davis said Arena has 40 years of experience in estimating projects. Arena said that he would never put anything down in writing that is not accurate.
Arena added that he runs the day-to-day operations of Caritas.
“Mr. Mita is a partner of mine, but he’s not involved in the day-to-day operations and not involved in the estimating or building processes,” Arena said.
Amusement park operator
Morey said he was the second generation involved in operating Morey’s Piers, a business started in 1969, and that he is involved in trade organizations, including a year as chairman of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.
Morey said he has visited the Wonderland site and that restarting an amusement park would take a couple of years to be successful due to the cost of operations and equipment.
“So starting essentially from the ground up, in my view, is not financially feasible,” he said.
Mita said in the past that he spoke with the Moreys about working with them to maintain Wonderland Pier as an amusement park.
“It’s a very challenging lift,” he said. “It’s something we didn’t think was feasible for us.” He added that an amusement park “is a high-risk environment that requires a tremendous amount of attention and care.”
Although Davis asked whether the deteriorated condition of the property made for an additional challenge, Morey agreed but said “the real challenge is all the capital” to make it work. He estimated that to be “tens of millions of dollars.”
Licensed planner
Morrissey said she is accepted as an expert in the planning field and works with a number of municipalities.
Summarizing a report that was sent earlier to the planners (and is available on the ocnj.us website under the City Meetings tab), Morrissey said “a significant portion of the structures” on the site are in deteriorated or substandard condition. That included both the elevated part of the structure — the deck — and the remaining amusements themselves.
She asserted the rides are essentially structures so their inclusion counted.
Regarding the vacancy, abandonment and underutilization, she said a number of rides have been removed since the park closed in October 2024 and that only about 20 percent of the property was used this past summer.
Mita reopened the main park building facing the boardwalk that housed the carousel, which was not operating. That building was home to a pizza shop and arcade and Mita rented space to the Dead End Bakery and a bike and surrey rental business.
Mita said he spent about $500,000 to get that building repainted and opened and lost another $500,000 operating it during the summer, but did so at the request of city officials who did not want the building dark during the tourist season.
Morrissey said in her professional opinion, both the deterioration and underutilization of the site criteria were met.
“With those two conditions being satisfied,” she said, undertaking rehabilitation would prevent continued deterioration.
Morrissey said enough of the property met the conditions for being in need of rehabilitation.
She added there was the additional cost to renovate and repair the three main rides that were left. Estimates to repair the Ferris wheel, Morrissey said, ranged up to $2.5 million. The log flume repair would could cost up to $4 million and the work on the carousel could be $1 million to $1.5 million.
Overall, she said in addition to the cost to repair the deck structure, the ride repair work could total as much as $8 million.
Together, she said the total of about $13 million in work came close to the assessed value of the property, which is at $15.8 million.
That all went toward meeting the condition under state law of a significant portion of the property in deteriorated or substandard condition. Morrissey also referenced photos of the site from 2005 and 2016 when it was fully operational with another from March 2025, months after the amusement park closed, to establish how it is now underutilized.
The law of rehabilitation would allow the owner to “ameliorate these conditions and prevent the overall continued deterioration of the property,” Morrissey told the board.
Barnes challenged Morrissey on using the assessed value, saying the market value, which he put at around $28 million, should be used, and that the repair cost of the rides should not be included.
With the witness testimony finished, the board heard an hour and 45 minutes of public comment, which was split half in favor and half in opposition to the rehab designation.
Davis then came forward to sum up his client’s case.
He pointed out there was no other professional engineering testimony offered to rebut Mowrer’s on the condition of the structure. He said Mita’s case shouldn’t be hurt by his reopening the main building for the summer. “No good deed goes unpunished,” he noted.
Davis said he laughed at the assertion the process was a means of avoiding public comment and that City Council and the Planning Board “bent over backwards to make this process as transparent, open and fair as possible.”
He said there were no tax benefits for his client through the process and he assailed the suggestion that because the applicant paid for the professionals they should be discounted.
“Certainly the city can go out and hire their own professionals if they choose to,” he said.
Given serious concerns expressed by business owners and merchant groups that lacking an anchor at that end of the boardwalk is hurting business throughout the city, Davis turned to the time frame before the city and his client.
“How long are you going to wait to see what occurs with this property if it continues to exist in its dormant state? Blight is insidious; it creeps,” he said, “and you have had many members of the boardwalk merchant community and other members of the business community in this town come before you today and testify and wave a caution flag.
“It is spreading and they have seen a negative impact in the businesses along the boardwalk as a result of the closure of Wonderland,” Davis said. “So the question is, how long do you wait? Do you take action now to make a finding that the statutory criteria is clearly advanced to let the process to move forward or do you say, ‘Well, let’s see what happens in 10 years?’ By then it may very well be too late.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
