December 05, 2024
Provided Image/Icona Resorts
Icona Resorts CEO Eustace Mita held a community meeting in Ocean City on Wednesday night to take questions about his proposed hotel that would replace the former Gillian's Wonderland Pier on the boardwalk. A rendering of the project is shown above.
At a community meeting in Ocean City on Wednesday night, Icona Resorts developer Eustace Mita revealed plans to include more children's amusement park rides in his proposal to build a 252-room hotel at the site of the shuttered Gillian's Wonderland Pier.
Mita pitched his Icona in Wonderland project at the Ocean City Tabernacle, where community members were invited to ask questions about various aspects of the proposal. The Jersey Shore hotel developer already had planned to keep and restore the giant Ferris wheel, carousel and wet boat rides from the former amusement park, which closed in October after decades at the boardwalk site on Sixth Street. Most of the remaining rides from Wonderland Pier are being sold.
During his presentation, Mita said he's purchased two refurbished "Batman"-themed rides that he also intends to include at the hotel if the project is approved. The two kids' rides are a "Batcopter" and a fighter jet that was originally produced in the 1980s, inspired by the comic book hero movies.
To refurbish the Ferris wheel and carousel from Wonderland Pier, Mita previously said he expects it will cost as much as $6 million. The plan would be to install lights on the Ferris wheel to make it a more visible beacon on the Ocean City Boardwalk. Mita said Wednesday night that work to restore the carousel's horses and other features of the ride will cost about $1.5 million.
The meeting had several heated exchanges between Mita and opponents of the project. Others showed up to share their support for the hotel, saying it will help sustain tourism and support businesses in Ocean City.
One community member pressed Mita about his effort to have the project site designated as a redevelopment zone by the state. The process is used to spur investment in blighted and underutilized areas. It would allow Icona Resorts to obtain a local zoning amendment to allow the hotel to be built on the boardwalk — where such projects are currently banned — more efficiently than if the developer went through the standard municipal zoning process that can take years.
"The benefit to the developer is expediency," Mita, who owns a home in Ocean City, said at the meeting. "... I don't have 10 years. I'm 70 years old."
Icona Resorts has seven hotels at the Jersey Shore in Cape May, Wildwood and Diamond Beach and Avalon. Mita has argued that Ocean City badly needs more hotel rooms to accommodate vacationers who prefer shorter stays than many of the town's rental properties offer. The city has not built a large hotel project in about 50 years, and many of its hotel rooms have disappeared as old buildings were converted into condos or knocked down to construct homes.
Mita purchased the Wonderland Pier site from Mayor Jay Gillian four years ago, offering to help Gillian sustain his family business that had fallen into debt. Mita denied at Wednesday's meeting that his friendship with Gillian meant the mayor would stand to gain from the hotel being built.
"The mayor has zero financial gain. The mayor has gone through hell," Mita said. "I think if it wasn't for me coming along and buying (Wonderland Pier), it would have been shuttered four years ago."
Icona Resorts is hopeful that it will be able to complete the hotel project — estimated to cost at least $135 million — within two years after its approval. If the plan is rejected, Mita told community members he would be willing to sell the property. He said the site on the boardwalk was recently appraised for $25 million, and he would price the property to include between $1 million and $2 million in carrying costs he's had since buying the land.
"If somebody wants to buy it, I would absolutely sell it tomorrow," Mita said.
