Auction of historic Justice-owned Greenbrier Resort averted for now
The historic Greenbrier Resort, owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, in White Sulphur Springs is shown. The Justice family announced an agreement has been reached to avert an auction of the property scheduled for Tuesday. (File Photo)
CHARLESTON — The Greenbrier Resort, the historic hotel owned by Gov. Jim Justice, will remain off the auction block for now due to an agreement with its new loan holder. According to a statement released by the Justice family Thursday morning, a deal on the Greenbrier was reached between the Justices and Maryland-based Beltway Capital Management and McCormick 101 LLC. “Under the agreement, Beltway Capital will receive a specific amount to be paid in full by October 24, 2024, which Justice has already secured this funding,” the family stated. “Beltway reserves its rights if the Justice family fails to perform. Upon full performance, all issues concerning The Greenbrier…are concluded.” Speaking during his weekly briefing Thursday afternoon from the State Capital Building, Justice said he had no choice but to come to an agreement with Beltway Capital/McCormick 101. “It was really tough because these people had a lot of leverage,” Justice said. “At the end of the day, I could have just thrown my hands up or better yet, my children could have just thrown their hands up and really there would have been carnage and devastation like you can’t imagine to the great people of the Greenbrier.” Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 LLC declared a loan transferred from JPMorgan Chase Bank in default last month after Justice was unable to pay the full amount by the June 28 maturity date, placing the resort in foreclosure. JPMorgan transferred what was left of a $142 million loan the elder Justice took out in 2014 on the Greenbrier to Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 on July 2. Representatives of Justice’s companies claim the loan was paid down to $9.4 million, but Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 filed a separate court case July 18 in New York seeking $40.3 million plus interest and late charges accruing since July 15 from Justice, James C. Justice Companies Inc., Justice Holdings LLC, GSR LLC, Wintergreen Partners Inc. and the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 specialize in purchasing distressed loans from banks that are secured with collateral. The companies planned to auction the Greenbrier next Tuesday, Aug. 27, on the steps of the Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg. Justice bought the Greenbrier in 2009 from rail company CSX. Since Justice first took office in 2017, Jill Justice runs the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. as president while Justice serves as governor, though Justice is still listed as CEO. Jill Justice and Jay Justice, the governor’s son who runs Justice’s coal and agriculture businesses, filed suit in Greenbrier County Circuit Court last week, seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the auction. A hearing in that case set for today is now canceled after a voluntary notice of dismissal was filed. Speaking Thursday, Justice said a non-disclosure agreement prevented him from giving specific details about the deal, including the amount agreed to between the family and Beltway Capital/McCormick 101. Justice continued to blame politics as well as unfair media coverage for the attention on the Greenbrier’s financial issues. “We had to work really hard, Jay and Jill, to find a way to take care of this,” Justice said. “In the meantime, all the flames that was being fanned from a lot of different directions just made it worse. When it is all said and done, what we’ve done is we acquired those funds and it’s going to cost our family a bunch of money. On top of that, it’s driven by (politics).” While the Greenbrier itself was saved from the auction block next Tuesday, approximately 400 union employees of the Greenbrier are set to lose their health care coverage on that same day unless the resort can pay more than four months of delinquent contributions. Attorneys for the Amalgamated National Health Fund claim the Greenbrier is behind on its health plan contributions to the tune of $2.4 million, plus another $1.2 million if not paid by Tuesday’s deadline. The delinquent amount includes employee contributions for 400 union employees of the resort that were deducted from paychecks by the Greenbrier but not remitted to Amalgamated National Health Fund. A request for comment and update from the Greenbrier and the Greenbrier Council of Labor Unions was not returned Thursday. But when asked about the matter Thursday, Justice claimed that there were no issues with union employee health care coverage at the Greenbrier. “There is no way that the great union employees at the Greenbrier are going to go without insurance. There is no possible way,” Justice said. “I will promise you to the good Lord above that insurance payments have been made and were being made on a regular basis just like we’ve done in the past.” Justice also owes millions in back taxes to the state and county, including more than $2.7 million in tax liens and penalties for unremitted consumer sales and use taxes and withholding taxes as of the end of July, and more than $1.6 million in unpaid property taxes from 2023. It is unclear how Justice has secured funding for the agreement between the Greenbrier and Beltway Capital/McCormick 101. In a separate federal court filing, attorneys for Justice’s Southern Coal Corp. claim the governor’s companies are unable to pay the remainder on overdue mine safety penalties. “While the Defendants have not entirely satisfied their obligations under the Consent Judgment, this is not due to a willful violation of the Court’s order,” wrote Justice attorney Aaron Houchens. “Instead, the Defendants have an inability to pay the current amounts due. This inability to pay is well known to the Government and has existed for some time.” U.S Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh filed a motion at the beginning of August in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia Roanoke Division to hold Justice-owned Southern Coal Corp. and 22 other Justice-owned companies in contempt over non-payment of Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) civil penalties. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and MSHA brought a lawsuit against 23 Justice-owned companies in 2019 seeking more than $5.1 million in unpaid mine safety penalties. According to the 2020 settlement, the companies made a one-time payment of $212,909.44 and agreed to pay $102,442 per month by the first of every month until the $5.1 million is paid in full. According to a joint status report filed in July 2023, 23 Justice-owned companies reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Roanoke to resume making payments in a 2020 settlement, plus an additional $51,221 per week beginning in August for 10 weeks to pay more than $409,000 on overdue payments. The full remaining amount of unpaid MSHA penalties became due on March 1, with $579,041 remaining. According to Houchens, all of the governor’s more than 147 assets are pledged to Virginia-based Carter Bank and Trust. In June, the Justice family announced a global settlement with Carter Bank. According to a statement, the settlement offered a pathway to paying off the more than $301 million owed to the bank by the Justices, since reduced to $291.1 million. Houchens argued that creditors, judgements, and other financial issues make further payment of the MSHA settlement impossible. He also blamed economic issues facing Justice’s coal businesses. “The government will undoubtedly argue that the defendants’ financial problems are self-induced and they should be prohibited from asserting this defense. Any such argument should be rejected,” Houchens said. “The global coal market and coal production has fallen over the past decade and fluctuations in coal prices have contributed to the defendants poor financial condition.” Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com