Wonderland survives pandemic

Key boardwalk business struggled before COVID; bank demanding payment in fall almost sealed fate

By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff

OCEAN CITY – The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic almost shuttered Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, a staple of the Ocean City Boardwalk with a history dating back to 1929, but the amusement park will open again this summer. 

Owner Jay Gillian hopes the legacy of what his grandfather started will continue beyond 2021.

Wonderland Pier was already struggling when COVID-19 hit New Jersey at the beginning of March 2020. Gillian, the third-generation owner of the park and mayor of Ocean City since 2010, said he was working on refinancing the park’s debt in March, when everything stopped. He was able to get the park open for a much shorter season after Gov. Phil Murphy’s restrictions closed all amusement parks until the July 4th weekend, killing the spring and early summer of business. Numerous other businesses across the city and state, including restaurants and retailers, also labored under severe restrictions during the pandemic.

“The story should be about COVID almost taking a business down,” Gillian said, “but we’re still standing. Unless you’re in small business, you don’t know what it’s like. Think of how many people we employ and what I’m responsible for at Wonderland. I take that stuff personally. I don’t take anything for granted.”

He said he’s been blessed that all of his and his wife’s children have at one time or another worked at Wonderland, part of the fourth generation of the family to do so. 

Bank calls mortgage, interest of more than $8 million

In September 2020, just after the summer season ended, First Priority Bank, a division of Mid Penn Bank based in Harrisburg, Pa., which holds $7,395,000 in mortgage debt owed by GILAMCO, Inc., filed in Superior Court of New Jersey Chancery Division against the company, Gillian and his wife, Michele, demanding full payment of all outstanding principle, interest and other charges. Included in the filing were demands for two other additional payments of $400,000 and $500,000.

In making the demand, the court filing indicated that the company and principals missed payments of principle and interest in August and September of 2019, well before the pandemic struck.

“I was golden about two or three weeks before COVID hit, and when COVID hit, it just devastated me,” Gillian said Monday in a followup conversation from two weeks prior. “Thank God I had the advisory group, that I had the support of friends and family. It got me through it. Michele and I are lucky we’re able to continue this tradition.”

“The taxes will be paid. Mid Penn will be satisfied and Wonderland is going to open this year just like it does as usual,” he said.

Gillian acknowledged that operating his family business has not been easy in recent years and that the pandemic nearly did it in. “Even in our industry it’s become very difficult for family-owned amusement parks to survive, just like family-owned businesses,” he said. “It’s been getting tougher and tougher and you have to change with the times. That’s what I’ve been working on.

“Back in 2019 I formed an advisory group to get through the future. The amusement business is difficult. It’s expensive,” he said, including the increasing minimum wage in New Jersey that has him paying teenagers in their summer jobs as much as more experienced workers had been getting. At peak times during the summer, Wonderland can employ as many as 200 people.

“It’s getting more and more expensive to run an amusement park and I was trying to be pro-active,” he said about the commission.

Gillian said he used to work with a Philadelphia bank, but a few years ago it decided to close its business book and told him he had to seek other financing. “I did find a local finance institution but they got bought out by a bigger bank so it took me a little longer. Mid Penn came through and financed me.” That was in 2017.

Dealing with the bank

“With a business like mine that only has eight to 10 weeks to survive year-round … you have to be very lucky with weather and different things. For me, it’s been a challenge because before COVID hit, I was ready to refinance. I was fine,” Gillian said. “The week before COVID and everything got shut down, I was ready to go to settlement (on the Mid Penn mortgage). It made it impossible to honor my obligations with Mid Penn. They had to do what they had to do. They have a board of directors they have to answer to.”

He doesn’t hold animus toward the bank. 

“Through this whole time Mid Penn and I have been working closely together. It has not been adversarial. They’ve been helping me immensely to get where I’m at now. They helped get me open last year. The bank and I have been very good partners with each other but they can only go so far.”

He was not able to refinance with Mid Penn, something he negotiated for months. Two weeks ago, during an earlier interview with the Sentinel, he said he was closing in on new financing but was not ready to make that public.

In a followup interview Monday – an interview to discuss the status business that had been scheduled for Friday, he stated, “I have secured the financing and we’ll be open for the 2021 season.”

History

Gillian’s grandfather, David Gillian, started Gillian’s Fun Deck in 1929, when Jay’s father, Roy, was born. Jay was born in 1964 and in 1964-65 Roy Gillian started Wonderland. Like his father before him, Jay grew up in the business and began “working side by side” with his father in the early 1990s and took over for him around 2005 when Roy got throat cancer. Roy Gillian is a former mayor of Ocean City.

Tax delinquency

Gillian said as part of the difficult economics facing his business, he has been about $100,000 behind on his taxes on Wonderland’s boardwalk property, which has a tax assessment of more than $12.7 million.

“The city always gets their taxes,” Gillian said when asked about the $96,429.77 that was past due as of last quarter. “I always have paid my taxes and will pay my taxes, with interest. When I don’t pay the taxes on time, the city taxpayers make out because they get a (high) interest rate.” He said the amount owed may be above that number because another quarter is coming up. “Whatever the interest rate is, that all goes back to the taxpayers. The taxes always get paid. I’m going through hard times like everybody else.”

The future

“I’m going to be open and I plan to continue. That’s why I hired the advisory group, to help me continue being in business,” Gillian said. “Here’s how I look at it. Nobody saw COVID coming. The one thing I’ve learned being a businessman and a mayor is you really can’t predict the future. You can prepare for it, and that’s what I’m doing right now.”

He credited the amusement park’s longevity to Wonderland’s guests.

“The only reason we survived is because we have great guests. The loyalty to Wonderful is really amazing,” he said.

Asked what is coming after the 2021 season, Gillian said, “I hope to continue the legacy. Over the past few years I’ve gotten more and more back into it, fixing the rides. A positive side to this is I’ve found a love for this industry that maybe I forgot a little bit. We’ve been cleaning the park up, working on the rides. … The pizza place is doing great. We’re partnering with someone to bring an arcade in. We’re looking at doing some kind of breakfast at the pizza shop this year. I still have my 10-year agreement with Coke. 

“I’m very, very lucky. That’s all I can tell you,” he concluded. “My father has been an unbelievable mentor and has helped me through some of the toughest times. That’s the one thing. I don’t want to let my father down. That’s one of my leading charges; as long as he’s alive I don’t ever want him to be disappointed in me and hurt what he’s built.”