Planner’s report supports designating it as ‘area in need of rehabilitation’
OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Council plans to act this week on its professional planner’s report that concludes the former home to the Wonderland Pier amusement park qualifies as a property in need of rehabilitation.
That rehab designation, which property owner Eustace Mita has been seeking as a precursor to building a major hotel at 600 Boardwalk, has created controversy in the resort for more than a year.
The report by professional planner Jennifer L. Heller of Polistina & Associates of Egg Harbor Township, essentially agrees with the assessment of Planning Board planner, Randall Scheule, and that of Tiffany A. Morrissey, the planner Mita hired to review the property.
Heller’s report details the statutory criteria that must be met to delineate an area as in need of rehabilitation, finding that the property meets two — 1) a significant portion of structures therein are in a deteriorated or substandard condition and 2) there is a pattern of vacancy, abandonment or underutilization of properties in the area.
The report also reviews a previous study conducted by Morrissey, which summarized the deteriorated conditions and underutilization of the property as two criteria for supporting a rehabilitation designation.
Heller’s study used a review of construction permits to evaluate the condition of the property. It found that there were substantial repairs completed in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025.
Work included structural alterations, undercarriage support and the addition of a steel beam to reinforce the concrete deck. After the rides were shut down, a permit was issued for shoring up the pier.
“Both the former and current property owners attempted to maintain and improve the structure and the amusement rides on site throughout the years. The fixes and repairs, some temporary and some more permanent, were not enough to keep a significant portion of the property from deteriorating and falling into substandard condition,” the report states.
Heller also evaluated the condition of the property and repair costs related to value.
It noted the assessed value of the property of $15.8 million and an equalized assessed value of $28.6 million, noting that Mita purchased the property in 2021 for $10 million.
It cited a cost to repair the infrastructure at $3.9 million, based on a contractor estimate, and the cost to repair the three major rides — carousel, Ferris wheel and log flume — at $4 million to $6.5 million.
Another previous study by Scheule determined that the “costs relative to the value of the property may lend support to the argument that the area is in need of municipal intervention to prevent further decline.”
In conclusion, the Heller study found “the designation of the area in need in rehabilitation is consistent with goals and objectives of the state development and redevelopment plan,” and that doing so would advance the goals of economic development, revitalization and recentering, and comprehensive planning.
The rehab designation offers more options on what can be built at the Wonderland property that is part of the On-Boardwalk zone that does not currently allow hotels.
Meeting Thursday
at Music Pier
The council meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Ocean City Music Pier in anticipation of a crowd of people.
The resolution on the regular agenda, added at the bottom, is “designating Block 600.05, lots 1 and 2, located at 600 Boardwalk, as an area in need of rehabilitation.”
The last two meetings at the Music Pier concerning the designation – one by City Council in December and the other of the Planning Board in January – drew hundreds of people, many who spoke in favor of the designation and many others who opposed it.
“Polistina & Associates has submitted its final professional planner’s report to City Council on the property at 600 Boardwalk,” council President Terry Crowley Jr. wrote in a release issued late Tuesday morning that had copies of the report and relevant exhibits attached.
“Action on the report’s recommendations will be taken at City Council’s public meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 25. The meeting will be held at the Ocean City Music Pier,” Crowley wrote.
Mita bought the 600 Boardwalk property to save it from foreclosure in early 2021 then leased it back to former owner Mayor Jay Gillian, who ran the amusements for four more summers before announcing in August 2024 the park would close permanently that October because it was no longer financially viable. Gillian, and his father Roy before him, ran the iconic amusement park for just shy of 60 years.
Late in 2024, Mita proposed building a seven-story, 252-room upscale hotel, atop ground-level parking, along with 10-12 storefronts. Mita, who operates Icona Resorts, which has multiple high-end hotels in Cape May County and beyond, has projected spending up to $170 million on the Ocean City project.
Opinion quickly split on the hotel project, which Mita presented at large public forums.
Mita refurbished the main Wonderland building fronting the boardwalk, reopening the pizzeria there and housing arcade games and a bike rental. It was open last summer and is open again this summer. However, the rides, including a historic carousel in the building and the Ferris wheel outside, have sat silent since mid-October 2024 when Gillian closed the park for good.
In August 2025, after lengthy public comments opposing the hotel, City Council voted against sending the property to the Planning Board for its recommendation on whether it qualified as “an area in need of rehabilitation.”
In December 2025, however, council reversed itself after the business community lobbied furiously in favor of the hotel, worrying that resort business was suffering without an anchor like the amusement park to draw patrons to that end of the boardwalk.
In January, after nearly 80 people spoke at a public hearing before the Planning Board at the Music Pier, planners split 4-4 on the rehab recommendation, letting it die.
In the meantime, Crowley had appointed an autonomous Boardwalk Subcommittee to study the zoning on the entire boardwalk, including the Wonderland property, and to make recommendations.
The subcommittee finally released its 85-page report in a presentation June 12 at the Ocean City Tabernacle. Although the bulk of the report included research and findings and recommendations about boardwalk zoning as a whole, it also recommended against a hotel project of the scope Mita envisions, saying any hotel on the boardwalk should not overwhelm either the boardwalk or the nearby neighborhood. The report did recommend the need for upscale hotel rooms and subcommittee members and Crowley said they hoped for a compromise at the site.
– By DAVID NAHAN and CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff