The Greenbrier Hotel, owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family, has been announced for auction — again — on the courthouse steps late this month because of default, according to a legal advertisement placed in Lewisburg’s West Virginia Daily News.
The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation characterized the announcement as a procedural matter and said a required payment to hold off the sale will still be made good.
“This is nothing but a procedural matter. It will be taken care of as scheduled,” Governor Justice said during a wide-ranging briefing today in response to reporters’ questions. “The Greenbrier is really, really, really important to our family.”
This kind of announcement of a foreclosure sale already happened once, August 1, because of default on the terms of a longstanding loan through the financial giant JPMorgan Chase. A few weeks before that first announced auction, JPMorgan had sold loan documents including the deed of trust to a credit collection company, a McCormick 101, which is associated with Beltway Capital.
That announced sale was then halted August 22 after The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation said it had reached an agreement with the credit collection company behind the foreclosure sale.
The family-owned corporation announced at the time, “Beltway Capital will receive a specific amount to be paid in full by October 24, 2024, which Justice has already secured this funding. Beltway reserves its rights if the Justice family fails to perform. Upon full performance, all issues concerning The Greenbrier and Glade Springs are concluded.”
During an August 22 briefing, in response to a question about a deal to hold off the earlier-announced sale, Governor Justice said, “We acquired the funds. It’s going to cost our family a bunch of money.”
Now, though, the potential forced auction is back.
Justice today briefly responded to a MetroNews question about whether the specific amount owed to the credit collection company was truly secured — or whether it was still being secured.
“Why should I disclose whether the amount is secured or being secured or more details about The Greenbrier,” Justice said. “All I can tell you without any question the balance of the amount will be paid; it’ll be paid in full — but as far as details and everything you can print or type or whatever it may be ‘Oh my gosh we don’t know whether they’ve secured the money and everything else’ and I think it’s fair to say the money has been secured.”
In response to the next question by WCHS television reporter Bob Aaron, the governor specified that the total that needs to be paid is $24 million and then got into details about two payments — $500,000 to be paid by a certain date and then a little more than a million dollars that was supposed to be paid by another date.
“The net-net of the whole thing is the balance of that, which is like $22.3 million balance is to be paid by the 24th of October, and that’s what will be paid,” Justice said.
The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, in a statement provided by Charleston attorney Steve Ruby, described the auction notice as due diligence that would ultimately prove unnecessary.
“As The Greenbrier previously announced, its agreement with Beltway Capital provides for a final payment to be made by October 24, 2024. The Greenbrier remains on track to make that payment. Today’s advertisement is merely a procedural matter. It in no way reflects any change in the parties’ relationship or The Greenbrier’s plans regarding payment,” Ruby stated on behalf of The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation.
The sale is listed for 2 p.m. Oct. 25 on the front door of The Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg. The ask is for cash in hand to be paid on the day of the sale.
Typically, a trustee appointed by the lender sends notice of foreclosure to the borrower and to any other subordinate lienholders. This process notifies those affected when the foreclosure sale will be and the terms. This is the notice, which has to be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, at least twice.
Justice gained goodwill and steps toward statewide name recognition when he bought The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in spring of 2009. Justice, a two-term governor, is now a Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and is considered the frontrunner because of his broad name identification and West Virginia’s recent voting trends.
This sale would be a little more than a week before the Nov. 5 election.
Justice’s most recent Senate financial disclosure lists personal debt of $25 million to $50 million with McCormick 101 LLC of Hunt Valley, Md. and due upon demand. Beltway is characterized as a loan servicer for McCormick 101, and the two share an address.
The property being foreclosed on constitutes 60.5 acres, and that does not include the entire Greenbrier Hotel complex. It generally includes the hotel itself and the parking. The balance of the property like golf courses, tennis and medical facilities are owned by other Greenbrier-related entities.
The Greenbrier, which dates back to 1778, is considered a National Historic Landmark set in the Appalachian Mountains in White Sulphur Springs, where people came to take the sulfuric waters. A total of 28 presidents have stayed at the hotel, including Dwight Eisenhower. The hotel property is also the site of an underground bunker that was meant to serve as an emergency shelter for members of Congress, if necessary, during the Cold War. Today visitors can take tours of the bunker.
The deed of trust in the Greenbrier Resort financial dispute was originally recorded in 2014 with JPMorgan Chase Bank as the lender. It was originally recorded securing a promissory note made by James C. Justice II, the borrower and now the governor. The note that it secured was for $142 million.
The Greenbrier Hotel Corp has maintained that it had been working in good faith with JPMorgan under a mutual agreement since 2021 and under that agreement the debt to JPMorgan had been reduced to $9.4 million.
After buying the loan documents from JPMorgan and declaring default, Beltway Capital has been asking for what remains of the loan, which its lawyers calculate to be $24 million in principal and $16 million in interest.
Justice again today described that entire set of circumstances as unfair and politically-motivated.
“This has been what I believe is unbelievably unfair to us and I believe without question it is 100% percent politically driven,” Justice said.