A bank that announced auction of The Greenbrier Sporting Club to satisfy a debt dispute with Gov. Jim Justice’s businesses now says it will hold off a few weeks on that sale to sort through complications.
Lawyers for Carter Bank & Trust offered to delay the auction in a filing today that responded to the possibility of a preliminary injunction.
The auction, which had been scheduled for March 5 on the Greenbrier County Courthouse steps, isn’t necessarily off completely. But Carter Bank is proposing putting it off until late April “to permit this court to receive a full briefing and appropriately consider the matters raised in this action.”
The Greenbrier Sporting Club is a private club offering memberships to people who buy real estate surrounding The Greenbrier resort. The Greenbrier Sporting Club Development Company is the real estate arm owned by the Justices.
Lawyers said Carter Bank “also understands that homeowners within Greenbrier Sporting Club development are also very interested in this matter and may be considering undertaking action of their own.”
A lawyer for Justice’s companies filed a motion this week for preliminary injunction to halt the auction of the properties.
A hearing had been set for Tuesday in Greenbrier County, and Carter Bank’s representatives said that did not represent enough time to prepare. A lawyer for Justice’s companies agreed to the Carter request to delay the preliminary injunction hearing.
Over much of the past year, Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Va., has been moving to collect $300 million in debts that were personally-guaranteed by Justice, his wife Cathy and their son Jay, who runs the family’s coal operations.
The loans, which had come due last April 15, applied to several branches of the family’s business network, including Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, Greenbrier Golf and Tennis Club and Greenbrier Sporting Club.
The auction of the Greenbrier Sporting Club was meant to pay down at least a portion of that debt.
The Justice companies have been pursuing a case to block the sale in Greenbrier County court. Part of that argument is the economic effect of the properties on the community as well as the potential effects on Greenbrier Sporting Club members.
A filing for the Justices seeking to halt the sale specifies that the property up for auction includes The Summit and The Lodge, which are shared facilities owned by the Sporting Club ,where dining and recreational activities are available to members, and The Snead golf course, which is also owned by the Sporting Club for the use of members.
Also potentially up for auction are lots at the Sporting Club owned by the development company.
“The Shared Facilities are essential to Sporting Club members’ enjoyment of their Sporting Club residences and to value of those residences,” the Justice filing contends. “The Shared Facilities are also essential to the Development Company’s ability to successfully market and sell the Lots.”
Auctioning the properties would damage the overall value, the Justice filing maintains: “The Shared Facilities are the principal amenities available to Sporting Club members, and if they become unavailable as the result of a sale, the value of members’ residences would plummet immediately.”