Mita believes silent majority speaking up; venue moved to Music Pier to accommodate expected crowd
OCEAN CITY — City Council expects another big crowd Thursday when members will have the opportunity to vote again on whether to refer the Wonderland Pier amusement park property to the Planning Board to determine whether it is an area “in need of rehabilitation.”
So much so that they have moved the 6 p.m. meeting to the Ocean City Music Pier from Council Chambers at City Hall.
The vote could be a key step forward in property owner Eustace Mita’s proposal for an upscale hotel and retail complex on the site, even though the planners’ decision would apply only to the property, not a specific project. The property is zoned for amusements only.
This is revisiting the decision from Aug. 21, when council voted 6-1 against the referral during a contentious meeting with citizens who overflowed Council Chambers and offered nearly two hours of public comment both for and against the resolution. The comment, however, mostly revolved around whether Mita’s project would be a savior for the north end of the boardwalk or a detriment.
At the time, council members said rather than vote on an individual property, it would be better to review the city’s Master Plan regarding the boardwalk as a whole and beyond.
A year ago, Mita proposed an eight-story, 252-room hotel with about a dozen storefronts, along with keeping a few rides from the defunct amusement park including the Ferris wheel and carousel. He said he would invest $135 million to $150 million on the project.
After council’s vote in August, a dejected Mita said he would walk away from his hotel plans and immediately put the property up for sale for $25 million. He quickly garnered two bids, one from Phil and George Norcross and their family and another from Ryan Homes, a national home-building company.
However, Mita, who has his own luxury home building company and a number of upscale hotels, has not sold.
On Monday, he said the Norcross family has upped its offer to top the one from Ryan Homes, but he was going to await the outcome of Thursday night’s council vote.
Also dejected after the August vote was the business community. The Boardwalk Merchants Association, the Downtown Merchants Association and the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce had all supported Mita’s plan, arguing the hotel would be a boon for the boardwalk. They have been opposed by other citizens and grass-roots groups including Save Wonderland, Ocean City 2050 and Friends of OCNJ History & Culture, who celebrated council’s decision.
Since then, however, the issue resurfaced a few more times.
In September, council Vice President Pete Madden, who had cast the lone vote in favor of referral, brought the resolution back under pending business, a move that infuriated opponents because it was not on the agenda and caught some council members by surprise as well. Council tabled the resolution.
In October, after business group representatives again pleaded for council to change its mind, council President Terry Crowley Jr. announced formation of an autonomous subcommittee to study the boardwalk and come up with recommendations, a move that could precede a Master Plan review.
However, a little more than a month later at the Nov. 20 meeting, Councilman Jody Levchuk, who voted in August against the referral, announced he wanted the resolution back on the agenda because he has become concerned about the harm being caused to businesses after a summer without an anchor drawing people to the north end of the boardwalk. Councilman Tony Polcini said he would support him.
Crowley confirmed Monday that Levchuk, Polcini and Madden requested the resolution be put on this Thursday evening’s agenda. It takes three members of council to get a resolution on the agenda. Approving the resolution, however, would require at least four votes.
Crowley said the meeting was moved to the Music Pier to accommodate a large crowd. There were so many people at the Aug. 21 meeting they could not all get into Council Chambers.
Mita on ‘pins
and needles’
Mita said Monday that he believes the impetus behind council voting again is that a “silent majority” of citizens has been speaking out in favor of his hotel project.
He said in his entire life of development, he has never had such support from the entire business community getting behind one of his projects.
“I’ve never had 100 percent in favor and that’s what you see here,” he said about the business groups lining up behind him. “If you take those three constituencies, they represent 100 percent of all commerce …. And I think that’s a great indication of them saying, ‘Hey, we need this revitalization piece. This is a landmark important piece in Ocean City.’”
Mita asserts that his hotel project would not only revitalize the boardwalk but also Asbury Avenue.
“This is going to give a shot in the arm to Ocean City, whose greatest revenue generator is tourism,” he said.
Mita said mayors in other towns where he has projects, including Avalon, Stone Harbor and Cape May, were surprised by opposition to the rehabilitation process because it gives them more control of what happens to the site and triples the tax benefit to the city. He has said in the past his project could mean nearly $1 million annually in additional tax revenue for the resort.
Mita also said he is open to compromise on his project.
“My whole life, my whole philosophy in business, is that it’s not your idea or my idea, it’s the best idea. If we collectively came up, as a lot of city officials have said, with a residential element … I’m not against that at all,” he said.
If council doesn’t approve the referral Thursday evening, the hotelier and developer still has the property for sale.
In August, Mita said he spent $14 million in early 2021 to buy the amusement park property to rescue it from foreclosure after banks called in more than $8 million in loans on owner Jay Gillian, whose family ran the amusement park for nearly 60 years. He leased it back to Gillian, who continued to run the park for four more years before announcing in August 2024 it was no longer financially viable having two amusement parks in the resort and that Wonderland would close permanently in October 2024.
The amusement park was closed all through the tourist season of 2025. Merchants have cited a decline in business without an anchor to draw people to that end of the boardwalk.
Mita said he spent more on carrying the property, with his investment at $20 million, which is how he arrived at $25 million as the sale price.
He had two offers, one from the Norcross family and another from Ryan Homes. Asked if the offers are still on the table, he said not only that, the Norcrosses raised their offer to top the one from Ryan Homes.
Mita added he is on “pins and needles” waiting to see what City Council will do.
He said he has seven different companies that have been supporting the “huge” expense at the 600 Boardwalk property.
“We’re losing a million there annually. I have to move on,” he said, adding that if council takes the rehabilitation process off the table this time, that would be it.
“I always say there’s your plan, my plan and God’s plan, and I’m going to take that as their hint that this isn’t going to be my plan,” he said.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
