OCEAN CITY, NJ (AP) – For generations of vacationers heading to Ocean City, the towering “Giant Wheel” is the first thing they see from miles away.
The view from the 140-foot-high (42-meter) rides let them know they are approaching the city of Jersey Shore that calls itself “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” with the promise of a child-friendly beach, seagulls and sea shells. , and the boardwalk is full of pizza, ice cream and cotton candy.
And at the heart of it is Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, the newest amusement park in nearly a century of family-friendly entertainment attractions operated by the family of the Mayor of Ocean City.
But the ride was quiet and still on Sunday, because the park managed by the mayor of Ocean City and nurtured by generations of his predecessors, was closed, a victim of financial problems made worse by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Superstorm. Sandy.
Gillian and her family have operated amusement rides and attractions on the Ocean City Boardwalk for 94 years. The most recent iteration of the park, Wonderland, opened in 1965.
“I’m trying my best to keep Wonderland alive as much as possible, through challenges that get harder every year,” Mayor Jay Gillian wrote in August when he announced the park would be closing. “This has become my life, my legacy and my family. But it is no longer a viable business.”
Gillian did not respond to multiple requests for comment over the past week.
Sheryl Gross was at the park for the last day with her two children and five grandchildren, enjoying their last moments.
“I’ve been coming here forever,” she said. “My daughter is 43 and I’ve been coming here since she was 2 years old with a stroller. Now I’m here with my grandchildren.”
He remembers decades of bringing his family from Gloucester Township in southern New Jersey to Philadelphia to make happy family memories in Wonderland.
“Enough excitement on their faces when they ride,” she said. “It really made the family happy. Now a lot of it is going to be lost.”
There is a long line Sunday for the Giant Wheel, log flume and other popular rides as people used the last ride tickets many have bought earlier in the year, thinking Wonderland will go forever.
A local non-profit group, Friends of OCNJ History and Culture, raised money to try and save the amusement park, maybe in a new owner that could be safer to buy with some financial assistance. Bill Merritt, one of the non-profit’s leaders, said the group has raised more than $1 million to help find a possible $20 million price for the property.
“Ocean City would be fundamentally different without this attraction,” he said. “This city depends on families. The park is designed for children; it’s called ‘Wonderland’ for a reason.
the current owner, Icona Resorts, previously proposed a $150 million, 325-room luxury hotel elsewhere on the Ocean City boardwalk, but the city rejected the plan.
The CEO of the company, Eustace Mita, said at the beginning of this year that it will take at least until the end of the year to propose use for the amusement park.
They bought it in 2021 after Gillian’s family was in danger of defaulting on the bank loan for the property.
At a community meeting last month, Gillian said Wonderland can’t recover from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, a pandemic in 2020 and New Jersey’s minimum wage increase that doubled the cost of wages, and $4 million in debt.
Mita issued a grant to prevent a sheriff’s sale of the property, and gave the mayor three years to turn the business around. That deadline expires later this year.
Mita did not respond to a request for comment.
Merritt said he and others can’t imagine Ocean City without Wonderland.
“You look at it with your heart, and you say ‘You’re losing all your cherished memories and all your history; how can you let go?'” he said. Then you look at it with your head and you say, ‘That’s why this city is profitable; how can you let it go?’”
___
Follow Wayne Parry at X at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
