Possible buyer emerges for Wonderland Pier property

A group of investors hopes to buy the former Wonderland Pier amusement park on the Ocean City Boardwalk – representing a possible lifeline for the property now that plans for a $150 million luxury resort hotel have collapsed.

Eustace Mita, the owner of the Wonderland site, intends to sell the property for $25 million following a vote Thursday night by City Council not to go forward with a proposal to declare that area of the Boardwalk “in need of rehabilitation.”

Mita sought the rehabilitation designation as a way to gain permission to construct a new 252-room resort in a section of the Boardwalk that currently does not allow hotels.

Clearly disappointed with Council’s vote, Mita told reporters that he is scrapping his hotel project and will instead place the Wonderland property on the market for $25 million, its appraised value.

Mita bought the financially troubled amusement park for $14 million in 2021 to save it from a sheriff’s sale. He has spent about $1.2 million annually in “carrying costs” for the four years he has owned it, for a total investment of about $20 million, he said.

Mayor Jay Gillian’s family had operated Wonderland Pier since 1965. Gillian continued to run the iconic amusement park after Mita bought it, but closed it for good in October 2024 after struggling for years with financial difficulties.

Now that Mita is looking to unload the Wonderland site, a local community group called Ocean City 2050 is putting together a syndicate of investors to try to buy the property.

“We are in a position to talk about making an offer,” Jim Kelly, the president of Ocean City 2050, said in an interview Friday.

Kelly explained that it would be the group of investors, not Ocean City 2050, that would look to buy the Wonderland property. He did not reveal any information about the investors other than to say that its leader has a “strong local connection.”

The investors, in turn, would help Ocean City 2050 to carry out its previously announced concept to turn the Wonderland Pier site into “Wonderland Commons.” The multifaceted project would feature a smaller, more compact amusement park, a digital entertainment center, public attractions such as a band shell for live music, and a low-rise boutique hotel.

Kelly noted that the Wonderland Commons concept would be “refined” with the help of residents, the business community, city leaders and the neighborhoods surrounding the site if Ocean City 2050 is able to actually develop it.

    Another architectural rendering of "Wonderland Commons." (Courtesy of Ocean City 2050)
  

Wes Kazmarck, president of the Boardwalk Merchants Association, wished Ocean City 2050 “good luck” in its quest to redevelop the site with its Wonderland Commons concept, but also sounded skeptical.

“On a personal level, it sounds like a major leap of faith. We’ll see what happens,” Kazmarck said. “Good luck trying to make it happen. A lot of stuff sounds great.”

Kazmarck was one of the hotel supporters who urged City Council at Thursday’s meeting to approve the rehabilitation plan for the Wonderland site to help speed Mita’s project along.

“We felt the hotel, what was proposed, was exactly what was needed,” Kazmarck said of the Boardwalk Merchants Association.

Expressing disappointment with Council’s vote, Kazmarck said the hotel would have enlivened the northern end of the Boardwalk in place of what is now the defunct Wonderland Pier.

“I think we need something exciting. I think people on that end of the Boardwalk need something like that – and that’s not happening now,” he said.

The hotel would have also added some variety to the Boardwalk, Kazmarck said. He believes that the Boardwalk does not need townhouses, more retail shops or pizzerias.

Kelly and other members of Ocean City 2050 have been among the most outspoken opponents of Mita’s luxury hotel project, believing that it would be too big and would not fit the family-friendly character of the Boardwalk. Wonderland Commons represents their competing plan for the property’s future.

“What we need is a thoughtful plan, one shaped with public input, one that enhances Ocean City’s family-friendly character, one that respects the businesses and the residents who make this place great,” Ocean City 2050 member Dustin Alvino told City Council during the meeting.

Alvino said Ocean City 2050’s concept is a way to “reimagine” Wonderland for the future with the help of the community and city leaders.

“Together, we are prepared to purchase Wonderland from Mr. Mita, providing him with a strong return while ensuring the community gets the thoughtful project it so deserves,” Alvino said.

    Hotel developer Eustace Mita addresses City Council during a discussion about his proposed project.
  

Kelly said representatives of Ocean City 2050 have been talking to Mita for a month or two about the possibility of buying the Wonderland site. He said Mita was willing to listen to them while also pursuing “the parallel path” of developing his hotel.

“He was very gracious and engaged about the idea,” Kelly said of Mita.

Mita told reporters after the Council meeting that other potential buyers have approached him.

He expressed his surprise with Council’s decision not to move forward with the process of declaring Wonderland in need of rehabilitation.

“I think the city really lost an opportunity, because regardless of what happens today, that piece should have been put in a redevelopment zone,” he said.

Voting 6-1, Council shot down a resolution that would have asked the city’s planning board to recommend whether Wonderland should be designated in need of rehabilitation.

Noting the importance of the Wonderland property to the entire Boardwalk, the majority of Council felt that the site should be part of a more comprehensive review in the city’s master plan.

Council President Terry Crowley Jr. noted that the entire Boardwalk zone would be evaluated in the master plan review process, rather than a plan of rehabilitation or redevelopment focusing on the Wonderland site alone.

”All Council members have heard both support and opposition to the hotel proposal, and I want to assure everybody that their voices were heard. Throughout this entire process, we have listened, been transparent, and complied with the procedures set forth in the Municipal Land Use Law. Now it’s time to move forward and work together to plan a bright future for our Boardwalk and the entire town,” Crowley said in a statement.

    Two children ride the Fun Slide while Wonderland Pier was still open.