WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (WCHS) — The owners of the Greenbrier Hotel, including U.S. Sen. Jim Justice and his family, have filed a motion in federal court seeking to halt the transfer of the property to a receiver.
The ownership group filed a motion for stay Thursday morning in U.S. District Court after nearly $300 million in liens on the Greenbrier and associated properties were purchased by TRT Holdings. Following the purchase, TRT sought a federal judge to place the property in receivership.
The 626-page motion filed on Thursday argues that the acquisition of the outstanding loans by TRT, the parent company of Omni Hotels & Resorts and the newly-formed White Sulphur Springs Holdings, was fraudulent and violated non-disclosure agreements.
The Justice family contends that TRT and the lender, Carter Bank & Trust, conspired to bypass an existing payoff agreement and essentially launch a hostile takeover of the Greenbrier.
The motion is requesting to halt federal proceedings until a judge in Greenbrier County – in a separate lawsuit filed by the Justice family – can determine if the loan purchase by TRT Holdings was valid.
In its request to the federal judge for receivership, TRT Holdings said the Greenbrier and related businesses are mismanaged, putting them at risk of falling deeper into debt and losing value if there’s no immediate intervention.
TRT’s likely most known asset, Omni, operates dozens of hotels and resorts in North America – including The Omni Homestead Resort & Spa in Hot Springs, Va., less than an hour from White Sulphur Springs where the Greenbrier is located.
Long before becoming a politician, Justice and his family purchased the historic Greenbrier property in 2009.
Carter Bank & Trust was the primary lender in the deal and has been central to financial issues surrounding the resort and the Justice family in recent years.
In 2024, the bank took out a legal notice in the Charleston Gazette-Mail announcing an auction of the Greenbrier Sporting Club on the county courthouse steps in an attempt to recover some of the $300 million loans.
That auction was eventually called off and months later the Justice family announced that a settlement had been reached to continue the agreement between the two parties.
