The decades-old Ferris wheel that looms over the shuttered Gillian's Wonderland Pier in Ocean City is going to be demolished, owner Eustace Mita said, and a large section of the property that housed the amusement park also is likely to be torn down in the near future. 

The attraction at 600 Boardwalk closed in 2024 and has since been the subject of a public battle over whether to construct a hotel at the site. City Council designated the property in need of rehabilitation in June, overriding local zoning restrictions to open a path for Mita's Icona Resorts to negotiate with the city on the hotel project. A lawsuit filed in August by a group of civic organizations is challenging the city's rehabilitation designation. 

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A recent inspection of the property revealed that a portion of a concrete retaining wall has caved in and the foundation is cracking about 30 feet from the Ferris wheel, which is also in a state of disrepair. 

Ocean City's construction inspector sent Mita a notice that the structure is unsafe, requesting an engineer's report on the damage and a plan of corrective action. The 144-foot-tall Ferris wheel is not referenced in the notice from the city. 

"The notice applies only to a cinder-block wall below one of the decks toward the rear of the property and not to the entire property or the building that people see from the Boardwalk," Ocean City spokesperson Doug Bergen said. 

In an email Monday, Mita said his consultants are advising demolition of much of the property. For the past two summers, Mita has operated a pizza shop, a cafe and a bike rental business out of the building on the boardwalk. 

"Our professionals are advising a total demolition of the back 2/3rd of the property," Mita wrote.

In an interview with the Ocean City Sentinel, Mita explained that the Ferris wheel has become unsalvageable and also will need to be demolished. Past repairs on the wheel's structure were welded into place, preventing disassembly and reconstruction of the ride. 

"You can't even unscrew it to bring it down," Mita told the newspaper. "It's going to have to be cut down with torches because of the way the repairs were made. The way they did that, it was never meant to come down. That's the bottom line."

Mita added that, because the Ferris wheel is 144 feet tall, its collapse would be "the worst nightmare," making demolition urgent. 

"We're not shocked that this Ferris wheel is in bad shape," said Bill Merritt, a founding member of Ocean City 2050, one of the groups behind the lawsuit against the city. "It sits in a very harsh environment. If you don't maintain something along the beach, it's going to rust and break."

Merritt noted that the ride was operating in 2024 before Wonderland Pier closed. When Mita first pitched his vision for a seven-story, 252-room hotel, preserving the park's Ferris wheel and carousel were part of the plan and had been depicted in project renderings. 

"Whether that was just sales with no truth behind it, or something that happened, safety comes first now, right?" Merritt said. "The deterioration in that asset is on (Mita's) watch, and you know, frankly, his watch began in 2021 when he bought Wonderland."

Mayor Jay Gillian briefly closed the park in 2021 and sold it to Mita. Gillian then leased the park from Mita for several years before determining the business was no longer financially viable. A key argument in the lawsuit against the city is that the rehabilitation designation overlooked a financial conflict of interest between Mita and Gillian, who was reelected to a fifth term in May, months after filing for personal bankruptcy. 

Before the rehab designation, Ocean City 2050 had proposed maintaining some type of amusement and entertainment venue at the north end of the boardwalk. Merritt said the space has been underutilized since Wonderland closed, and he questioned whether letting the property deteriorate has been part of Mita's strategy to drive urgency for redevelopment. Demolition could now create an opportunity for Mita and the city to open a public amenity at the site during the interim period while the property's future is decided. 

"If that's what has to be done, fine," Merritt said. "In some ways, creating an open lot with sand for the time being, it's not the worst result. It's not the long term result you want, but it's probably less of an eyesore than what's there today."

Mita disclosed that the pier was damaged in reports he provided to the city last year. His reports estimated that repairs would cost $3-5 million. Demolition or remediation of some portion of the property had been expected. The Ferris wheel also required maintenance in recent years after an aerial lift broke near the surface of the ride. A construction worker was killed while working on the Ferris wheel in 2022, resulting in fines for the project's contractors. 

Mita did not provide a timeline for the potential demolition of the Ferris wheel or the portion of the Wonderland property that was deemed unsafe. 

The lawsuit that was filed last month in Cape May County Superior Court is seeking to have the rehab designation voided. The suit alleges Ocean City has engaged in a pattern of restricting public participation in local land use decisions. 

City Council has met privately since August to discuss retaining counsel for the litigation, and Merritt said the city requested an extension to answer the complaint. He expects that will happen in October and a status conference with the judge could be held before the end of the year. 

The lawsuit does not prevent Ocean City from continuing negotiations with Mita and conducting an analysis that will include traffic studies, surveys and market research. Merritt said the group behind the lawsuit wants to see pragmatic solutions and would not stand in the way of a project that gains broad public support. 

"If the city can put forward something that makes sense and everyone likes, the purpose of the lawsuit is not to stop progress," Merritt said. "It was to make sure that the right thing happens down there."

Merritt said that while the lawsuit aims to address general concerns about government transparency and public processes in Ocean City, the central issue is filling the void on the boardwalk with a project backed by consensus. 

"Wonderland is dead. They killed it, right?" Merritt said. "So if it's dead, let's bury it. But just because it's in disrepair, shouldn't green light what (Mita) wants to do."