Ocean City’s Top Stories of 2024

The closing of historic Wonderland Pier, a controversial plan to replace the amusement park with a luxury hotel and a troublesome start to the summer tourism season dominated the headlines in Ocean City in 2024.

Following is a look back at the top five stories of 2024, according to OCNJDaily.com.

    Children whirl around on the Wonderland Pier swing ride during the amusement park's last few weeks.
  

Wonderland Pier Closes

In shocking news that continues to rattle Ocean City, the iconic Wonderland Pier amusement park owned by Mayor Jay Gillian’s family closed for good on Oct. 13 because of financial difficulties.

Gillian’s late grandfather, David Gillian, founded the family’s amusement business in Ocean City 94 years ago. His father, Roy Gillian, who died last August, started what became Wonderland Pier at Sixth Street and the Boardwalk in 1965.

Despite Wonderland’s rich history and traditions, the park struggled with financial troubles in recent years. In January 2021, Wonderland Pier was ordered to be put up for a sheriff's auction after Jay Gillian defaulted on $8 million in mortgage debt.

However, Gillian secured the financing needed to prevent an auction through developer Eustace Mita, owner of the ICONA luxury resorts in the Cape May County beach communities of Avalon, Cape May and Diamond Beach.

Gillian said the money that Mita invested in Wonderland went toward paying off debts. He noted that Mita gave him three years in 2021 to try to turn Wonderland around. Ultimately, he couldn’t overcome Wonderland’s financial struggles.

“I couldn’t pay the bills,” Gillian said during a community meeting Sept. 14 that focused on Wonderland’s hardships.

    Architectural rendering of proposed "ICONA in Wonderland" resort hotel on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
  

Will a Luxury Resort Hotel Replace Wonderland?

Hotel developer Eustace Mita stepped forward to propose a 252-room luxury resort on the former Wonderland Pier property, sparking an intense community debate over what should be built on the high-profile site.

Mita made a series of private and public presentations on his $135 million to $155 million project in hopes of winning community support, but faced a mix of skepticism and outright opposition from local preservationists who want the property revived with a new generation of family-friendly amusements.

As part of his plans, Mita has requested that the city declare the property “in need of redevelopment” to fast-track the zoning approvals for a section of the Boardwalk that currently does not allow hotel development.

In addition to emphasizing the tax revenue that the project would bring to the city, Mita says it will create badly needed hotel rooms to support the tourism industry, Ocean City’s main moneymaker.

For now, no decisions have been made about the hotel project by city officials while discussions continue. 

    During a May 30 news conference, Police Chief Bill Campbell outlines Ocean City's response to the trouble over the Memorial Day weekend.
  

Rowdy teens disrupt Memorial Day weekend

Ocean City had a difficult start to the traditional kick-off of the summer tourism season.

Memorial Day weekend was tainted by a stabbing, fights, shoplifting and other crimes committed by groups of troublemaking teenagers roaming the Boardwalk.

Video of the fighting over the Memorial Day weekend went viral on social media. Altogether, police brought 23 teens into the police station for fighting, shoplifting and other offenses during the weekend. Police also issued more than 1,300 warnings for drinking alcohol in public, smoking marijuana, curfew violations and other infractions.

Mayor Jay Gillian and Police Chief Bill Campbell denounced the rowdiness, but held a press conference on May 30 to assure the public that Ocean City remained a safe town.

Police responded with a series of crime-fighting measures to prevent more trouble, resulting in a quieter tourism season the rest of the summer.

    Incumbent Third Ward Councilman Jody Levchuk wins reelection by a mere two votes.
  

Razor Thin City Council Election

The old saying “every vote matters” was never truer than the City Council election in May between incumbent Jody Levchuk and challenger Amie Vaules.

After all of the ballots were counted, Levchuk won in a race that separated the candidates by a mere two votes, 402-400.

Vaules had filed a lawsuit challenging the results, but ended her legal fight one day before a court hearing.

Vaules conceded the election in a statement that congratulated Levchuk on his win, bringing the litigation for the Third Ward seat to an abrupt end.

Her suit included allegations that Levchuk’s brother, Randy Levchuk, actually lives in Kenilworth, N.J., not Ocean City, and should not have voted in the municipal election. Jody Levchuk angrily denounced the lawsuit, particularly what he perceived to be a “disgusting” personal attack against his brother and his family. 

    A rendering depicts what the gigantic wind farm turbines would have looked like off the Cape May County coast. (Image courtesy of Orsted).
  

Wind Farm Legal Battle Ends

Following a lengthy legal fight, Cape May County ended its lawsuits in December against a proposed offshore wind energy farm after the state and federal agencies that had supported the project conceded it was dead.

The county had filed state and federal lawsuits to block the wind farm proposed by the Danish energy company Orsted 15 miles off the coast between Atlantic City and Stone Harbor.

In the suits, the county alleged that the project would have caused far-reaching economic and environmental harm to the tourism industry, commercial fishing, migratory birds and marine life such as dolphins and whales.

On October 31, 2023, Orsted announced that it was abandoning its Ocean Wind One and Ocean Wind Two projects off the South Jersey coast, citing inflation, rising interest rates and supply-chain disruptions for its decision.

While Orsted retains the lease areas for the offshore wind projects, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has suspended the Ocean One lease area for three years. There are no current plans by any offshore wind developer for the use of the lease areas, county officials said.