Debt paid on historic hotel owned by family of West Virginia governor, a US Senate candidate

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, says it has paid off debts to avoid the foreclosure on its historic hotel, The Greenbrier.

The 710-room hotel, which has hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressional retreats, came under threat of being auctioned off on the steps of a Lewisburg courthouse this past summer. That was after JPMorgan Chase sold a longstanding loan taken out by the governor to a credit collection company, Beltway Capital, which declared it to be in default.

In August, the Justice family said it had reached an agreement with Beltway Capital to “receive a specific amount to be paid in full by October 24, 2024." The agreement delayed the auction, originally scheduled for late August, to October 25, unless the Justice family settled its debts.

Attorneys for the Justice family announced in a press release sent to The Associated Press on Wednesday that it has “satisfied its obligations to Beltway Capital and that the Beltway Capital indebtedness has been paid in full.”

“This significant achievement comes as part of the family’s ongoing commitment to ensure the long-term stability and prosperity of their holdings, including The Greenbrier Resort, America’s Premier Resort,” the family said in a statement.

During a briefing with local media on Wednesday, Justice repeated past assertions that the Beltway situation was politically motivated and “not fair at all.”

“It’s cost us an unbelievable amount of money and there was no choice,” he said. "You can let 2,000 people suffer because of a bad act that was happening to the Justice family, or you could find a way. Well, that’s what we did. It was not any fun and it cost us a lot of money.”

The Greenbrier employees around 2,000 workers.

Justice is running in the U.S. Senate race against former Wheeling mayor and Democrat Glenn Elliott to take over the seat of outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who switched from a Democrat to an Independent earlier this year.

Justice, who owns dozens of companies and had a net worth estimated at $513 million by Forbes Magazine in 2021, has been accused in court cases of being late in paying millions for family business debts and fines for unsafe working conditions at his coal mines.

Justice began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, after buying The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in 2009.

The hotel in White Sulphur Springs held a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 until 2019 and has welcomed NFL teams for training camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot (10,080-square-meter) underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War now hosts tours.