UP FOR GRABS? - The Greenbrier Resort is scheduled for the auction block again for Oct. 25, though Gov. Jim Justice and his family attorney both said the legal notice was a formality as the company continues to meet a settlement agreement with the current holder of a loan on the historic hotel. -- File Photo
CHARLESTON — A second legal notice in Gov. Jim Justice’s hometown newspaper announcing another impending auction of his historic Greenbrier Resort is merely a formality, Justice said as his family continues to work with a lender to keep the hotel.
According to a legal advertisement Thursday morning in The West Virginia Daily News of Lewisburg, the companies that hold the original loan on the Greenbrier – Maryland-based Beltway Capital Management and McCormick 101 LLC – filed notice to auction off the Greenbrier due to default.
The auction of the main hotel building and its parking lots will take place Oct. 25, at 2 p.m. on the steps of the Greenbrier County Courthouse, going to the highest bidder who has cash on hand the day of the sale.
But Justice, speaking Thursday on his second virtual briefing this week, and an attorney for the Justice family stressed that the legal notice was nothing to be concerned about, saying it was one step in a process as Justice’s companies work to comply with a deal made with Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 in August to avoid a sale of the Greenbrier.
“This is just a procedural thing,” Justice said. “We’ve got a good relationship and we’re on track. All of this will be taken care of just as it is supposed to be. It will be retired and taken care of by the 24th of the month. All of that is in process and it’s been in process, and everyone knows that, but there does have to be procedural things that take place that are done. This is nothing but that.”
“As The Greenbrier previously announced, its agreement with Beltway Capital provides for a final payment to be made by October 24, 2024,” said Steve Ruby, an attorney for the Justice family, in an emailed statement Thursday morning. “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.”
A deal on the Greenbrier was reached between the Justices and Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 on Aug. 22. While few details of the agreement were released, a statement at the time from the Justice family said Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 would receive a specific amount to be paid in full by Oct. 24, which Gov. Justice had already secured funding for.
Once the funding is in hand by the Oct. 24 deadline, all issues with the Greenbrier between the two parties will be concluded, though Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 reserves its rights if the Justice family fails to perform, including auctioning off the resort.
Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 – which specializes in purchasing distressed loans from banks that are secured with collateral – declared a loan transferred from JPMorgan Chase Bank in default in July 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 that Justice took out in 2014 on the Greenbrier to Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 on July 2.
Representatives of Justice’s companies claimed in July 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.
Justice said Thursday the total settlement amount with Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 was $24 million with specific payment dates leading up to Oct. 24. Justice said he made two payments to Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 since the August settlement was announced, with a $500,000 payment and a $1.2 million payment made before Sept. 15. He also denied rumors that all or part of the Greenbrier would be sold or managed by Texas-based Omni Hotels and Resorts.
“That’s just smoke and mirrors,” Justice said. “There is no way Omni is buying a part of the Greenbrier or going to run the Greenbrier. There is no way. There is no discussion. There has been no discussion. I don’t know why in the world we run with rumors.”
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. Justice’s son Jay operates the family’s coal, agricultural, and real estate businesses.
Justice and his family have been fighting off lenders and vendors for years seeking unpaid money from various Justice-owned businesses, but Justice still contends that the default on the Greenbrier loan was meant to hurt his Republican campaign for U.S. Senate. Justice faces Democratic former Wheeling mayor Glenn Elliott.
“It’s cost me a pile of money and a lot of agony,” Justice said. “I don’t need anybody to offer up sympathies to our family or me. I surely appreciate it, but I don’t need that. It’s something that we’ve had to deal with, and it came out of the clear-blue nowhere. It was political through and through. I don’t care what anybody says.”
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