By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Don’t bother checking your bank accounts. The two most iconic rides at the shuttered Wonderland Pier are not for sale.
Speculation began to swirl on social media after Wonderland’s towering Ferris wheel and historic carousel mistakenly appeared on a list of the amusement park’s rides that are being sold now.
Hotel developer Eustace Mita, who owns the Wonderland property, the Ferris wheel, the carousel and the kiddie Wet Boats ride, put a damper on the rumors Wednesday by emphatically saying, “They’re not for sale.”
Mita reiterated his plans, first announced on Nov. 13, that he wants to incorporate those rides within the design of a luxury hotel resort he hopes to build on the Ocean City Boardwalk in place of Wonderland.
“The answer is, as usual, I’m a man of my word and did not renege on any deal,” Mita said in an interview of his intentions to keep the rides as part of the hotel project.
The 140-foot-tall Ferris wheel and the carousel dating to the 1920s are the two rides synonymous with Wonderland. They were included on a list of other less-revered Wonderland rides up for sale now at an amusement park trade show in Orlando, Fla. The Ferris wheel’s appraised value was listed at $390,000 and the carousel at $250,000.
The Wet Boats ride doesn’t appear on the sale list. Mita said the Ferris wheel and carousel should not have been included with the rest of the rides that are being sold by Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian, whose family operated Wonderland Pier for nearly 60 years before it closed for good on Oct. 13 because of financial difficulties.
Mita said he told the mayor to remove the Ferris wheel and carousel from the sale list, which follows:
Meanwhile, Mita plans to discuss plans for his hotel during a community meeting organized by City Councilman Jody Levchuk. The meeting, open to the public, is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25, at the Ocean City Free Public Library’s Chris Maloney Lecture Hall.
Mita said he also plans to hold his own community meeting during the first week of December to update the public on his hotel project. The date and time still must be announced, but the location will be the Ocean City Tabernacle.
Plans for Mita’s $135 million to $155 million luxury hotel, called “ICONA in Wonderland,” were first revealed on Nov. 13 during a private meeting of Ocean City’s Boardwalk Merchants Association.
Mita specializes in developing high-end hotel projects. He is well-known at the Jersey Shore for his upscale ICONA resorts in the Cape May County beach communities of Avalon, Cape May and Diamond Beach.
His proposed Ocean City hotel would rise 7½ stories high on the former Wonderland Pier property at Sixth Street and the Boardwalk. It would include 10 to 13 retail outlets in front of the hotel overlooking the Boardwalk, 375 parking spaces under the building and two swimming pools, one indoor and the other outdoor.
Mita stressed that he has no plans to seek a liquor license for the hotel. Fears had been circulating in the community that he would likely want to have a liquor license to make the project more attractive to hotel guests. Ocean City law has prohibited the sale of alcohol ever since the resort was founded by four Methodist ministers in 1879 as a “dry” town.
There are no guarantees that Mita’s project will ever make it off the drawing board. He originally unveiled plans in 2023 to build a $150 million hotel next to Wonderland, but that project did not receive support from Mayor Gillian and other key city officials.
Under Ocean City’s existing zoning laws, hotel construction is not allowed on the part of the Boardwalk where Mita hopes to build his project.
Mita is asking City Council to formally designate the proposed site as an area “in need of redevelopment” to allow the hotel’s construction. The proposal would result in tax advantages for the city, Mita said.
At this point, the Council members are saying that they need more time to research the legal implications of the redevelopment zone and to speak to the public for more input about the proposed hotel.
Gillian says he is remaining neutral at this time. He, too, wants to give the public more time to consider the project before he takes a position.
Mita saved Wonderland Pier from a sheriff’s auction in January 2021 after Gillian defaulted on an $8 million mortgage. Gillian said Mita gave him three years in 2021 to try to turn Wonderland around. Despite Wonderland’s rich history and traditions, Gillian ultimately couldn’t overcome the amusement park’s financial struggles and closed it Oct. 13.
Now, Wonderland’s fans and at least three local groups of preservationists have called on Mita to resurrect the amusement park in some form or, at the very least, to save the Ferris wheel and carousel.
One of those groups, Friends of OCNJ History & Culture, plans to present its own vision for revitalizing the Wonderland site during a community meeting Saturday, Nov. 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, 760 West Avenue.
