May 16, 2025
Michael Tanenbaum/PhillyVoice
Developer Icona Resorts plans to open the former Gillian's Wonderland Pier building on the Ocean City Boardwalk as an arcade and pizza shop starting Memorial Day Weekend. The developer is finalizing plans to propose a 250-room luxury hotel at the site later in the summer. The building, which was recently repainted, is shown in March in the photo above.
The former site of Gillian's Wonderland Pier, the amusement park that closed last year after nearly a century on the Ocean City Boardwalk, will operate this summer as an arcade and pizza shop, the property owner said.
Icona Resorts CEO Eustace Mita, who hopes to replace the shuttered amusement park with a 250-room hotel, said Friday he plans debut the new look over Memorial Day Weekend. The story was first reported Thursday by the Press of Atlantic City.
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“We want to do what’s right for this city. We don’t want a dead zone on the Boardwalk,” Mita said.
The building at 6th Street and the boardwalk was recently repainted inside and out — something a passerby noticed and posted on Facebook — and Mita said he purchased new ovens for a shop that will be called Ocean City Pizza Company. Wonderland Pier formerly operated 6th Street Pizza, which closed in October along with the amusement park.
None of the old rides from Wonderland Pier will be running at the new venue this summer, but Mita said he bought new arcade games for the building.
For generations, Wonderland Pier was owned by the family of Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian, who sold the real estate to Mita in 2021 to avoid facing a sheriff's auction. The property had $8 million in defaulted mortgage loans, and Mita's investment allowed Wonderland to operate for a few more years until Gillian announced last summer that it was "no longer a viable business."
Playland's Castaway Cove, the only remaining amusement park on the Ocean City Boardwalk, rebuilt and reopened its arcade in April after it was destroyed in a fire four years ago.
The hotel proposal at the Wonderland Pier site has ignited debate and raised questions about Mita's plans since the amusement park closed.
Icona Resorts has six luxury hotels at the Jersey Shore in Cape May, Avalon and Diamond Beach. Mita also owns the home-building company Achristavest.
In the fall, Mita unveiled tentative plans and renderings of the proposed Icona in Wonderland hotel. The $150 million project would preserve the former amusement park's Ferris wheel and carousel along with a few additional rides. The project has faced opposition from some residents and homeowners, and Ocean City's zoning laws do not allow hotels to be built on the boardwalk without a variance.
Over the past several months, Mita has held community meetings to discuss the hotel plan and address residents' concerns. He vowed not to try to get around Ocean City's prohibition on liquor sales for his hotel and said parking for the building would be kept in a contained area of the property.
To address Ocean City's zoning hurdles, Mita has said he hopes to gain support from city council to designate the Wonderland Pier site as a state redevelopment zone. That approach would classify the land as blighted and create a tax arrangement that funnels most of the hotel's property-related revenue to Ocean City instead of the county and state.
Icona Resorts was expected to formally propose the hotel this spring, but Mita said he now expects that to happen in June or July.
The hotel plan earned the support of both the Boardwalk Merchants Association and the Downtown Merchants Association in March. Mita said he is awaiting a vote on a possible endorsement from the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Ocean City has seen a decadeslong decline in hotel rooms that has coincided with the rise of condos and shore homes, which are typically rented for longer than three-day bookings. In an interview in November, Mita told PhillyVoice the city needs a new hotel to appeal to different kinds of visitors.
"We average four people occupying a room for a three-day stay," Mita said of his other hotels at the Jersey Shore. "Those are the people that come down and spend the money, and those are the ones Ocean City is just doing away with."
