West Virginia Governor Jim Justice is running for a senate seat. He’s racing against time to keep The Greenbrier.
It’s over unpaid debts, according to multiple reports that state the luxury resort, located amid the Allegheny Mountains in White Sulpher Springs, W.Va., will be put up for auction on August 27th. The 700-plus-room resort, known for its Dorothy Draper interior design, includes four golf courses, a casino, medical spa and multiple dining outlets, including Prime 44 West, a steakhouse named after the late Jerry West, a West Virginia native.
The resort employs thousands of workers, most of which are from and live in the area. It also famously includes a massive underground bunker that was meant to serve as an emergency shelter for the U.S. Congress during the Cold War.
Now, the Justice family is looking to stave off the resort going on the block. A spokesperson for Justice told the Associated Press that “the impending auction is not a state government matter and the governor’s office wouldn’t comment.”
However, it did offer it’s own statement through an attorney, calling it politically motivated. According to the statement, Justice was described as having a “long-standing” relationship with JPMorgan and that as part of that relationship, “the Governor had pledged a second lien position in the Greenbrier Resort behind Carter Bank & Trust to obtain better banking terms from JPMorgan Chase.”
The statement said that payments to JPMorgan had been made as recent as the end of June of this year, but that on July 1, 2024, the Governor was reportedly notified by JPMorgan that it had sold the loan to Beltway Capital, which subsequently declared the loan to be in default and initiated foreclosure proceedings.
“This deceitful move by JPMorgan is nothing more than the latest political stunt by the Democrats to undermine the next Republican Senator from West Virginia,” the statement continued. “In recent days, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s staunch ties to the Democrat party and his support for the Biden-Harris administration and continued control of the Senate by the Democrats have been well documented. This political stunt is just the latest of several rounds of attacks on Governor Justice and his businesses for political gain.”
Justice, through the statement, which was given on his behalf by attorney Bob Wolford, was adamant that The Greenbrier would not be sold and that the family would “take all necessary action to ensure that there will not be any adverse impact on their ownership of the Greenbrier or the Greenbrier’s operations.
ICYMI: The Greenbrier Hotel, owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family, could be going up for auction later this month.https://t.co/YBEsaccB4o pic.twitter.com/wDkKBQDmoh
— Eyewitness News (@wchs8fox11) August 2, 2024
“Governor Justice and the Justice Companies will vigorously defend their position and take necessary protective action while they continue to evaluate significant damage claims against JPMorgan Chase and the other parties involved.”
The Greenbrier has a long and storied history as one of America’s heritage luxury resorts, boasting that it has hosted 28 U.S. presidents. It was built in 1913 by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, a major force in opening the coalfields of southern West Virginia in the years after the Civil War. Up until 2009, the resort was owned by rail transport and real estate company CSX Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy that year. In March of that year, a proposed deal was in place to sell the resort to Marriott International for $130 million before the Justice Family Group, a company owned by the-then-coal-baron Justice, swooped in and picked it up in May by purchasing The Greenbrier holding company’s stock.
CSX President Michael Ward called the result great for the Greenbrier and the community.
Justice, West Virginia native born in the capital city Charleston, has been governor of the state since 2017 and famously still coaches the local high school girls’ basketball team. In April 2023, he announced he would run for Democrat Joe Manchin’s vacated U.S. Senate seat in 2024.
