With Gillian's Wonderland Pier closing, what will become of its Ocean City Boardwalk location

A longtime haven for summer family fun at the Jersey Shore now facing an uncertain future.

Friday’s announcement that Gillian’s Wonderland Pier on the Ocean City Boardwalk would close for good this year has been hard to take for people from multiple generations.

As people process the end of an era – Wonderland is where countless parents have had that picture-perfect moment where their child waves to them from a ride for the first time – there are concerns about what could come next.

On the boardwalk outside Wonderland Pier Monday, heartbroken families hoping that the fun somehow won’t slide away from the landmark Ocean City attraction.

“Whatever it is, I hope it's family friendly, and that there's activities that the kids could still, maybe possibly, ride on,” Reading, Pennsylvania’s Lisha Yochimowitz said.

Pier owner and Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian announced last week that Wonderland -- between East 6th Street and Plaza Place -- would close for good in early October. He said the park that’s been in his family for 94 years is no longer good business.

"I tried my best to sustain Wonderland for as long as possible - through increasingly difficult challenges each year," Gillian said. "But it's no longer a viable business."

“When I first heard about this, I said to one of my friends, you know what they're going to do? They're going to build either condos or a hotel, which is very sad,” National Park’s Jacki Bollendorf said.

“The property is no longer mine, so I can’t speak to its future,” Gillian wrote on Aug. 9. “But I’ll always have a have a lifetime of priceless memories, and I hope you will too.”

The property is owned by Eustace Mita, who partnered with Gillian a few years ago after Wonderland defaulted on millions of dollars of loans. Mita’s company, ICONA Resorts, has upscale hotels in Avalon, Cape May and Diamond Beach.

Last year, Mita proposed a $150 million beachfront hotel for a property adjacent to Wonderland Pier.

“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Mita told the resort town’s leadership in February 2023. “We haven’t had a new hotel here in over half a century.”

The proposal sparked opposition and went nowhere.

Ocean City Councilmember Jody Levchuk thinks the amusement park could be successful under different ownership.

“I think that there is opportunity, for sure, to keep it as an amusement park,” Levchuk said. “This isn't just one out of 100 restaurants that might go out of business. This is an important amusement park that has been really an epicenter of the city.”

West Deptford resident Michelle Mehaffey hopes it remains family friendly. “At least make it restaurants or maybe arcades, something for families and kids to do,” she said.

In a statement, Mita said his company would take until the end of the year to evaluate what’s best for the Jersey Shore city and the landmark site which he said deserves first-class treatment.