OCEAN CITY — Eustace Mita’s proposal for a towering Boardwalk hotel received support from Asbury Avenue merchants Tuesday, although not the resounding endorsement the plans received from Boardwalk businesses.

The Retail Merchants Association voted 16 to 5 in favor of the proposal, according to Caitlin Quirk, the president of the group.

"I think it's a great day and a great indication for Ocean City, because it proves that the 10-plus loudest opponents are in the minority," Mita said Tuesday afternoon. "The vast majority want the hotel because they know it's what's best for Ocean City."

Mita described the vote as a three-to-one majority.

A similar vote from the Boardwalk Merchants Association earlier this month saw a stronger majority in favor of the proposed Icona at Wonderland, with more than 90 percent of the members supporting the proposal.

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As presented, the hotel would include 250 rooms and preserve some of the Wonderland rides on site, including the Ferris wheel and the historic carousel.

Both groups are part of BAND, or Business and Neighborhood Development, and members pay an additional assessment as part of a special improvement district.

Neither group has any decision-making powers over whether the hotel can eventually be built, but support could potentially sway some on City Council.

"It doesn't mean it's going to happen," Quirk said on Tuesday afternoon. She added that the group's support is only for the plan as currently proposed. If plans change significantly, the support would no longer be valid.

Tuesday’s meeting was upstairs at City Hall.

Several more business owners wanted to participate on Tuesday, Quirk said, but the votes could only happen in person. Quirk added that like the Boardwalk Merchants Association, each member gets one vote, regardless of the number of businesses that member owns.

The downtown merchant group had heard a presentation on the plans from Mita's son, Eustace Mita Jr., at a previous meeting. Quirk said the group also heard from city attorney Dottie McCrosson about rehabilitation areas before voting at City Hall.

Mita said he plans to ask for the former amusement park to be declared an area in need of redevelopment, which could speed the approval process for the project. Otherwise, it would need a use variance from the city’s zoning board, site plan approval, and multiple other approvals.

As city officials have pointed out, even with a city declaration, the proposal would still face review by the city Planning Board and other approvals.

So far, there has been no formal application for the project, but Mita has been meeting with residents and organizations since unveiling plans last year after Wonderland shut down at the end of the season.

Mita said he wants to get a proposal on a City Council meeting agenda in April, or May at the latest.

Mita’s proposal has faced opposition, including from the recently formed organization Ocean City 2050, which sent a letter to Quirk this week seeking a delay in the Tuesday vote.

Signed by member Jim Kelly, the letter suggests the downtown organization could be “giving momentum to a bad idea” and calls for a delay. The group suggests there are other options, possibly a return to an amusement park, and includes a quote from Boardwalk Merchants Association President Wes Kasmarck that the options for the site are a hotel or nothing.

“This is not true,” the letter reads. Other options are available for 600 Boardwalk, including the continuation of amusements, a hybrid between amusements, entertainment and other permitted uses, and also structures that are smaller and more in keeping with eh size and scale of the Boardwalk, and the culture of the city.”

Mita has owned the property since 2021, gaining the deed when bailing the business out of a pending foreclosure. He leased the property until last summer, when Wonderland CEO Jay Gillian said it would close in October and was no longer a viable business. Gillian is also the four-term mayor of Ocean City.

In previous meetings, Mita has said he’d be happy to sell the property, if an investor would meet the money he invested in its purchase and in the property since then. He has not given a specific number, but made clear it is in the tens of millions of dollars.

Mita has estimated the cost of the Icona hotel proposal at around $150 million.

The Ocean City 2050 letter questions whether the proposal would be good for Ocean City.

“We do, of course, think it is a great idea for you to hear Mr. Mita out, provide constructive feedback and ask to be kept in the loop as the process moves forward,” the letter reads. “We just wonder if, by voting now the merchants actually lose a place at the table going forward, versus maintaining a seat by withholding a firm yes or no.”

Quirk said on Tuesday that she had not seen the email.

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