July 16, 2025
Jon Tuleya/PhillyVoice
Some Ocean City residents have posted signs on their lawns opposing developer Icona Resorts' plan to build a 252-room hotel at the former boardwalk site of Gillian's Wonderland Pier. A survey by Rutgers University's Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling found more residents are against the project than for it.
The future of the former Gillian's Wonderland Pier site on the Ocean City Boardwalk has been a hot topic at the shore community since the decades-old amusement park shut down in October.
An eight-story luxury hotel proposed for the property by developer Icona Resorts would be a stark change in direction for the beach destination, which historically has shied away from splashy boardwalk development projects. Signs on some lawns in Ocean City this summer call the project a "big mistake" that threatens the town's family-friendly identity.
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The opposition has been spearheaded by Ocean City 2050, a community group that wants the site at Sixth Street and the boardwalk to be recast as a multi-use entertainment facility with limited lodging at the back of the lot.
"Big projects are tough. They're just hard at the beach because they're expensive and there are lots of approvals," said Bill Merritt, one of the group's founding members. "Unless you have strong community support, it's not going to fly."
A rendering shows Icona Resorts' proposed 252-room hotel on the former site of Gillian's Wonderland Pier at Sixth Street and the boardwalk.
In June, Ocean City 2050 commissioned Rutgers University's Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling to conduct a survey of residents — both year-round and seasonal — to gauge opinions on the hotel and the future of the boardwalk.
"We didn't want there to be bias," Merritt said. "We wanted it to be something the community could look at and say, 'OK, that's what we seem to be rallying behind or carrying torches to.'"
Among more than 200 people who responded to the online survey, 38% said they're "very opposed" to the hotel compared with 21% who said they're "very supportive" of it. Another 15% are "somewhat opposed," 23% are "somewhat supportive," and 3% are unsure. Asked whether they would like to see a high-rise hotel or resort on the boardwalk, 77% of survey takers said no. In separate questions, 71% said they're in favor of "family-friendly entertainment" — such as amusement parks, arcades and water parks — and 69% said they would like to see a variety of dining options.
Merritt said one of the key takeaways from the survey is that people who land in the middle about the hotel are likely amenable to the kind of project Ocean City 2050 has proposed as an alternative.
"It's just got to be smaller and have more entertainment," Merritt said. "Not only did it tell you what not to build. I think the survey told you what to build."
Ocean City 2050 says it has lined up financial support to pursue a public-private partnership that would create a new amusement park with fewer, simpler rides and entertainment options that appeal more to teenagers — like escape rooms and virtual reality experiences. There also could be a playground, a rooftop deck with food trucks and a low-rise condo development with ground-floor retail and dining.
ICONA resorts CEO Eustace Mita, who has six luxury hotels at the Jersey Shore and runs the home-building company Achristavest, interpreted the survey as more favorable to his project. The plans he unveiled last year include preserving Wonderland's Ferris wheel, carousel and a few small rides. The project also would have a parking lot on a contained section of the property, which he purchased out of a defaulted mortgage in 2021.
The former Wonderland Pier building was repainted and reopened this summer as an arcade and pizza shop owned by Icona Resorts.
"(If) you look at the undecided, don’t really care, the way I look at it that means 62% are for it," Mita told the Ocean City Sentinel last week.
Mita could not be reached for further comment on the survey. In the fall, he defended the 252-room hotel as a necessary offset to a decadeslong trend of hotels disappearing in Ocean City in favor of condos. Mita said the hotel would be tailored to vacationers who prefer three-day stays over the longer commitments many rental properties require.
Icona Resorts has not formally submitted a proposal for the hotel to city council. Zoning laws in Ocean City prevent new hotels from being built on the boardwalk, meaning Mita would either need a variance or support from the city to have the state declare the site a redevelopment zone. That would funnel most of the hotel's tax revenue directly to the city, but Merritt's group views the strategy as a stretch of the state's legal guidelines that typically apply to blighted areas. Ocean City 2050 intends to take legal action against any plan using a redevelopment zone.
"This is prime beachfront property," Merritt said.
Merritt recently met with Mita to review his group's business pitch, which he argues would minimize risk and give Mita multiple revenue streams as a landlord. This summer, Mita is running the former Wonderland building as an arcade and pizza shop. He's hinted at proposing the hotel by the end of August, but has already delayed doing so for months.
"He seems more inclined to sell if he can't build what he wants," Merritt said.
