January 1, Beloved Jersey Shore Landmark Razed for WOKE Developer’s Luxury Project

Wyatt’s Take

• A New Jersey coastal town just voted to let developers bulldoze a 90-year-old family amusement park and replace it with a massive luxury hotel — local families are furious
• Ocean City officials sided 5-2 with a resort developer who wants to destroy Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, a beloved Jersey Shore landmark that entertained hardworking families for generations
• Community groups are filing lawsuits, calling out city council members for conflicts of interest and selling out residents for developer cash — this is crony capitalism at its worst

Ocean City, New Jersey officials just greenlit the destruction of a cherished piece of American history. Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, a family amusement park that’s been making memories since the 1930s, is being wiped off the map so a luxury hotel developer can cash in.

In a 5-2 vote, the city council approved rezoning the beloved boardwalk property as “in need of rehabilitation.” That bureaucratic sleight of hand opens the door for Icona Resorts owner Eustace Mita — who bought the land in 2021 — to build a massive 252-room hotel where generations of American families rode the Giant Wheel and classic carousel.

David Gillian founded what became Gillian’s Fun Deck around 1930. His son Roy took over in 1965, operating it as Gillian’s Wonderland Pier for nearly six decades. The park became famous for its 144-foot Giant Wheel, old-fashioned carousel, and monorail that delighted kids and parents alike.

But rising costs, insurance premiums, COVID lockdowns, and damage from Superstorm Sandy finally forced the park to close its gates in October 2024. Ocean City mayor Jay Gillian — a one-time owner himself — said the family business just couldn’t survive the mounting financial pressures.

“I tried my best to sustain Wonderland for as long as possible, through increasingly difficult challenges each year,” Gillian wrote in a Facebook post.

“It’s been my life, my legacy and my family. But it’s no longer a viable business.”

Heartbroken locals watched the park close, knowing nothing would ever be the same. Pennsylvania resident KR Watkin, 72, captured the pain felt by thousands of families.

“It’s not going to be like it was every year we come down, something is taken away,” Watkin said at the time.

Park employee Andrew Boyland described the final days as “surreal.”

“I can’t believe this is happening. I’m upset about it but at the same time the amount of people that have come here ever since we announced we are closing is amazing.”

Now the developer who snatched up the property wants to replace working-class family fun with a luxury hotel catering to wealthy elites. Some residents say the hotel will bring more tourists to the small city of 11,000 year-round residents that already swells to over 100,000 visitors daily in summer.

But many locals are furious. They say city officials are selling out the boardwalk’s character and history for developer profits.

Ocean City 2050, a community advocacy group, blasted the council’s vote as a “strategic blunder” that gives the developer “a stronger hand, and a worse outcome for residents.” The group announced plans to join other organizations in filing lawsuits challenging the rehabilitation designation.

“The council’s failure to meet the statutory requirements for rehabilitation, its arbitrary decision-making, its willful disregard of known financial conflicts and its breach of fiduciary duty to the citizens it serves” are reasons the group cited for the lawsuit.

Ocean City 2050 pointed to a recent subcommittee report calling for “using traditional planning tools, not rehabilitation designation, to address this site.” The group says it would support development that “enhances entertainment, respects the neighborhoods and protects our boardwalk’s iconic look and feel” — not a luxury hotel that changes the town’s entire identity.

The vote doesn’t immediately approve construction. The city still has to draft a redevelopment plan, hold public hearings, and seek additional approvals. But angry residents say the fix is already in — and they’re preparing to fight back in court.

Wyatt Matters

This is what happens when elected officials forget who they work for. Hardworking families built communities like Ocean City over generations — places where regular Americans could afford to make memories without taking out a second mortgage. Now developers and politicians are teaming up to price out the middle class and replace beloved landmarks with luxury projects that serve the wealthy few. When crony capitalism destroys a 90-year-old family business so a resort owner can build another hotel, it’s not progress — it’s betrayal. These fights are happening in small towns across America, and it’s time working people stood up and said enough.