Briana Heaney Published

Greenbrier Resort Secured By Justice Family, Again

The Greenbrier is no longer slated to be for auction on October 24.
AP Photo/Steve Helber, File

After months of financial uncertainty surrounding the ownership of The Greenbrier, the Justice Family has paid its creditor in full. The auction of the property, as part of a foreclosure, has been canceled as well.  

The Justice family said they have made their payments in advance and strengthened their financial positioning. 

““We are excited to have successfully paid in full our obligations to Beltway Capital and look forward to the future of The Greenbrier and Glade Springs,” said the Justice family in an emailed statement. “We know this was a stressful period, and we look forward to welcoming visitors for many years to come.”

Metro News’ Brad McElhinny first reported that some of the funding to pay Beltway came from Fortress Investment Group. Fortress was a lender in the building of Chicago’s Trump tower. The firm later forgave over two-thirds of the $130 million loan, prompting an investigation by the New York Attorney General into Donald Trump’s tax obligations.   

One of the Fortress’s executive officers, Drew McKnight, hosted Trump in Aspen, Colorado for a campaign trip, according to the Aspen Times. 

Gov. Jim Justice said during his regular press conference that he could not say how, where, or from whom he was able to secure the $24 million dollars needed to avoid the sale of The Greenbrier. He did say he has an ongoing relationship with Fortress, however. 

“I’m under a level of confidentiality, and I don’t know that I can disclose that to you, but we have had several conversations, and I’ve, we’ve got a lot of stuff that’s cooking and working with Fortress,” Justice said. “I’ve had a lot of interaction with the Fortress, and done a lot of work with them.”

The Greenbrier was part of what made Justice a house-hold name in the Mountain State, when he bought it out of bankruptcy in 2009.

Justice contends that the sale of the loan from Chase Bank, his original creditor, to what he called a “cut throat collections bank,” McCormick 101, was politically motivated. Justice said if he wins he could flip the majority in the Senate to the Republicans. However it has not been made clear by either party what Chase Bank would gain or lose from Justice winning the U.S. Senate race. 

There are disagreements between the Justice family and his creditors about how much was owed on the Greenbrier. Jim Justice has said many times, including in Wednesday’s press briefing, that the family only owed $9.4 million on a $200 million dollar loan. 

However Beltway Capital Mangement’s lawsuit, filed in New York City, seeked to recover $40 million from Justice-owned companies back in August, prior to the agreement averting the August sale of Greenbrier.