The hotel would be called "ICONA in Wonderland."
A community preservation group that objects to plans for a luxury resort hotel in place of the former Wonderland Pier amusement park will present its own ideas later this month for revitalizing the property on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
Friends of OCNJ History & Culture believes that the proposed 252-room
“ICONA in Wonderland” resort would be too big for the site and would do little to stimulate business on the Boardwalk outside of the hotel.
“It is a monster of a building,” Bill Merritt, president of Friends of OCNJ History & Culture, asserted in an interview Saturday.
Merritt believes the hotel would disrupt the surrounding Plaza Place residential neighborhood with extra traffic headed to the resort. The building’s massive size would also block out the sunlight to neighborhood homes, he said.
In another argument against the proposed hotel, Merritt maintained that luxury resorts are designed to “capture” their guests instead of encouraging them to venture outside the property to patronize other businesses and explore other areas.
“It’s a bad model,” he said. “It’s a resort. The business model is to capture the guests. A resort does not push people into town.”
Merritt was reacting to hotel developer Eustace Mita’s announcement on Nov. 13 to transform the Wonderland Pier site at Sixth Street and the Boardwalk into a $135 million to $155 million ICONA resort hotel. Mita owns the ICONA brand of luxury resorts in the Cape May County beach towns of Avalon, Diamond Beach and Cape May.
“As an Ocean City resident, where I have raised my children and now have the pleasure of seeing my grandchildren walk the boards, we are extremely excited about the plans for this special spot on the Boardwalk,” Mita said in a statement about the proposed hotel.
Mita invested in Wonderland Pier in 2021 to save the financially troubled amusement park from a sheriff’s auction after Mayor Jay Gillian defaulted on an $8 million mortgage.
The Gillian family had operated Wonderland for nearly 60 years. Despite Wonderland’s rich history and traditions, Jay Gillian closed the park on Oct. 13 amid its financial struggles.
Bill Merritt, president of the community group Friends of OCNJ History & Culture, has been addressing City Council for months about the future of the Wonderland Pier property.Mita now owns the property and the Wonderland amusement rides, including the landmark 140-foot-tall Ferris wheel and the historic carousel. He does not plan to revive the amusement park. However, as part of the proposed hotel’s design, he would blend in the Ferris wheel and carousel with the construction of the resort.
“We look forward to preserving the rich history of Wonderland Pier, sharing the iconic Ferris wheel and carousel with visitors for decades to come,” Mita said in his statement.
Friends of OCNJ History & Culture wants the site to remain an amusement park of some type, perhaps a smaller one than the original Wonderland Pier. The group plans to unveil its vision for the property during a community meeting it will host in Ocean City on Saturday, Nov. 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, 760 West Avenue.
Merritt said the group has already raised more than $1 million for their plans. Most of the money comes from two benefactors whose names are not being divulged at this time, he noted.
The group’s strategy is to raise a pool of capital to help create a family-friendly amusement park, either by Mita or another developer. The money would also help to reduce the financial risks of such a project, Merritt explained.
A number of community preservation groups have been vocal in their support of keeping the Wonderland site as an amusement park. They include Friends of OCNJ History & Culture, Ocean City Old Home Lovers and Save Wonderland.
Merritt said Friends of OCNJ History & Culture and Ocean City Old Home Lovers have effectively become one group in their effort to revive the Wonderland site as some type of an amusement park or family-style attraction. He said there are 10,000 members with both groups.
The groups hope to help recreate the “whimsical, magical” atmosphere that Wonderland provided for generations of families that visited the amusement park, Merritt said.
“What did Wonderland do? It drew people up to the Boardwalk. It made you turn left from Ninth Street,” Merritt said.
An architectural rendering depicts the proposed hotel and the former Wonderland Pier Ferris wheel as part of the project.Mita believes that an upscale resort hotel would reflect the best use of the site now. His proposed ICONA in Wonderland hotel would be 7½ stories high. 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.
"We recognize how important this property is to Ocean City, and are thrilled to present ICONA in Wonderland, an oceanfront hotel that we believe will be a win for the city, state, merchants on the Boardwalk, and all of the people of Ocean City," Mita said in his statement.
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 for 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, he said.
City officials have reacted cautiously to Mita’s project, stressing that they want local residents and business owners to give their feedback about the proposed hotel before any possible decisions are made at the Council level.
Merritt characterized Mita’s request to declare the property in need of redevelopment as a bad idea that would lack transparency and public input. He said cities and towns usually designate areas in need of redevelopment when there is blight to be removed – not to clear the way for construction of a hotel in place of a shuttered amusement park.
“This town has to avoid setting a bad precedent,” he said.
Instead, Merritt thinks that Ocean City should take a broader approach by studying ways to re-energize the entire Boardwalk through the city’s master plan, a comprehensive blueprint for overseeing growth and development.
He said that the master plan process would closely involve the public and would be much more transparent than going through the redevelopment route proposed by Mita.
“Let’s look at it comprehensively. The beauty of the master plan process is, it is wide open,” Merritt said.
From left, Boardwalk Merchants Association President Wes Kazmarck talks with Mayor Jay Gillian and hotel developer Eustace Mita after Mita's announcement on Nov. 13 about the Wonderland Pier site.
