OCEAN CITY – ICONA Resorts CEO Eustace Mita is expected to open the doors of the iconic Wonderland Pier in Ocean City this summer, but only for arcade games and pizza.
The proposal to open the arcade and pizzeria prevents that end of the boardwalk from being a commercial dead zone for the 2025 season.
While preparing this limited role for the Wonderland property for the summer, Mita has also been busy lining up support among commercial and business groups in Ocean City for the resort hotel he proposes for the site.
The amusement park, created and run by the Gillian family since 1965, is gone. Mayor Jay Gillian closed it in October, declaring that it was no longer a viable business.
Mita, owner of the land on which the one-time amusement park sits, wants to erect a $150 million resort hotel complex on the site but has yet to get city approval. He expects to make a proposal to the City Council in June or July, seeking approval for the resort complex and an agreement by the city to designate the area as a zone in need of redevelopment.
That designation would allow greater flexibility with respect to zoning rules and greatly accelerate the project.
Mita first took a proposal for a large resort complex to Cape May City in 2022, where it was met with opposition from the council. Mita owns the land where the now defunct Beach Theater stands.
Seeing little prospect that he would gain redevelopment status for his property in Cape May, he then turned his attention to Ocean City.
It was Gillian’s announcement in August of 2024 that the Wonderland Pier would close that gave new life to the proposal to use the land at the start of the commercial boardwalk at Sixth Street for the envisioned hotel resort.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
