LEWISBURG – The Greenbrier, which is owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family, will be up for auction later this month on the county courthouse steps, according to a legal advertisement.
The legal announcement of the foreclosure was placed in Lewisburg’s West Virginia Daily News. It says the auction is scheduled for 2 p.m. August 27 at the front door of the Greenbrier County Courthouse. The auction is taking place because of default, according to the legal notice.
In a statement, the Justice companies confirmed the legal notice but called it “another political stunt by the Democrat machine.”
“Let me be clear that the Greenbrier will not be sold, and the Justice family will 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 and the ability of the Greenbrier to continue to provide world class service for its guests will be uninterrupted,” attorney Bob Wolford said in a statement, according to a story by MetroNews reporter Brad McElhinny.
Justice bought The Greenbrier in 2009. The deed of trust originally was recorded in 2014 for the benefit of lender JPMorgan Chase Bank securing a promissory note by Justice for $142 million. Justice pledged a second lien with Carter Bank & Trust for better banking terms with JPMorgan Chase, according to the companies’ statement. It also says Justice substantially has paid his debt to JPMorgan Chase in recent years down to $9.4 million.
The Justice companies’ statement says he was noticed last month the loan had been sold to Beltway Capital, which immediately declared the loan to be in default, began foreclosure proceedings and initiated legal action against the governor and some of this companies.
“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 Justice companies wrote in the statement, also citing JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s “staunch ties to the Democrat Party.”
“This political stunt is just the latest of several rounds of attacks on Governor Justice and his businesses for political gain.”
In his latest Senate financial disclosure, Justice lists personal debt of $25 million to $50 million with McCormick 101 LLC. Beltway is a loan servicer for McCormick.
The property being auctioned is 60.5 acres of the entire complex, according to MetroNews. It basically is the hotel and parking areas. Golf courses, tennis courts and medical facilities are owned by other Justice companies.
The legal notice says the real estate will be sold together with all improvements and adjacent rights, fixtures, personal property and equipment, rents, damage rights, permits of land, permits for the other property rights and ancillary rights.
"Cash in hand paid on the day of sale," the notice states. "The purchaser shall be responsible for the payment of the transfer taxes ... The subject property will be sold in 'as is” condition. The substitute trustee makes no representations and warranties of any kind or character including, but not limited to, the condition of the real estate or the title to the real estate to be conveyed.
"The substitute trustee shall be under no duty to cause any existing tenant or person occupying the subject property to vacate said property."
Justice and his companies are no stranger to their finances being in the headlines.
Liens have been placed against The Greenbrier in the last year. Two liens totaling nearly $900,000 were withdrawn last month, but five others totaling more than $2.75 million still exist.
Justice, his family and his companies have been entangled in a long legal battle with Carter Bank regarding $300 million in loans. That resulted in another legal advertisement last year to auction The Greenbrier Sporting Club, but the auction didn’t occur after the family sued.
And there have been dozens of other lawsuits focusing on Justice family and company financials. The governor says he no longer is directly involved in the businesses, and he often discounts media coverage of the issues by saying “it seems to always get worked out.”
“It’s like a constant barrage over my family stuff, and at the end of the day it seems to always get worked out,” Justice said during a press briefing last month. “I just wish to goodness that you would report something that was really the big stuff. You know, how much reporting did you do over something that literally everybody thought the sky’s falling, the sky’s falling, the worst, it’s the worst, the worst — the Carter Bank issue.
“The Carter Bank issue absolutely was a gigantic issue, and it took a lot, a lot, a lot of work by a lot, a lot, a lot of folks. It went on for a year. And I told you over and over and over what the outcome would be — and lo and behold it’s exactly what the outcome would be: Everything’s good in the neighborhood.”