Historic Jersey Shore theme park shuts after generations of household delights

SEA CITY, N.J. (AP)– For generations of travelers heading to Ocean City, the towering “Giant Wheel” was the very first point they saw from miles away.

The view of the 140-foot-tall (42-meter) adventure allowed them understand they were obtaining near to the Jersey Shore community that calls itself “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” with its pledge of kid-friendly coastlines, seagulls and sea coverings, and a busy boardwalk filled with pizza, gelato and candy floss.

And in the heart of it was Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, a theme park that was the most recent in virtually a century-long line of family-friendly entertainment tourist attractions run by the household of Ocean City’s mayor.

But the experiences were to drop quiet and still Sunday evening, as the park run by Ocean City’s mayor and supported by generations of his forefathers, folded, the sufferer of economic troubles worsened by the sticking around effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Superstorm Sandy.

Gillian and his household have actually run entertainment experiences and tourist attractions on the Ocean City Boardwalk for 94 years. The most recent version of the park, Wonderland, opened up in 1965.

“I tried my best to sustain Wonderland for as long as possible, through increasingly difficult challenges each year,” Mayor Jay Gillian created in August when he introduced the park would certainly shut. “It’s been my life, my legacy and my family. But it’s no longer a viable business.”

Gillian did not reply to various ask for remark over the previous week.

Sheryl Gross went to the park for its last day with her 2 kids and 5 grandchildren, appreciating it one last time.

“I’ve been coming here forever,” she claimed. “My daughter is 43 and I’ve been coming here since she was 2 years old in a stroller. Now I’m here with my grandchildren.”

She bears in mind years of bringing her household from Gloucester Township in the southerly New Jersey suburban areas of Philadelphia to develop satisfied household memories at Wonderland.

“Just the excitement on their faces when they get on the rides,” she claimed. “It really made it feel family-friendly. A lot of that is going to be lost now.”

There were lengthy lines Sunday for the Giant Wheel, the log flume and various other preferred experiences as individuals utilized the last of adventure tickets lots of had actually purchased previously in the year, believing Wonderland would certainly take place for life.

A neighborhood charitable team, Friends of OCNJ History and Culture, is increasing cash to attempt and conserve the theme park, potentially under a brand-new proprietor that could be a lot more responsive to acquiring it with some economic help. Bill Merritt, among the charitable’s leaders, claimed the team has actually increased over $1 million to assist satisfy what can be a $20-million price for the building.

“Ocean City will be fundamentally different without this attraction,” he claimed. “This town relies on being family-friendly. The park has rides targeted at kids; it’s called ‘Wonderland’ for a reason.”

The building’s present proprietor, Icona Resorts, formerly suggested a $150-million, 325-room deluxe resort in other places on Ocean City’s boardwalk, yet the city declined those strategies.

The firm’s chief executive officer, Eustace Mita, claimed previously this year he would certainly take a minimum of up until completion of the year to suggest an usage for the theme park building.

He got it in 2021 after Gillian’s household remained in threat of back-pedaling small business loan for the building.

At a neighborhood conference last month, Gillian claimed Wonderland can not recover from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the pandemic in 2020 and a boost in New Jersey’s base pay that increased his pay-roll expenses, leaving him $4 million in the red.

Mita installed funds to ward off a constable’s sale of the building, and offered the mayor 3 years to transform business around. That target date ended this year.

Mita did not reply to ask for remark.

Merritt claimed he and others can not envision Ocean City without Wonderland.

“You look at it with your heart, and you say ‘You’re losing all the cherished memories and all the history; how can you let that go?’” he claimed. “And then you look at it with your head and you say, ‘They are the reason this town is profitable; how can you let that go?’”

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