By Steven Allen Adams
For The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
Charleston – Attorneys for the family of U.S. Sen. Jim Justice said they are close to a deal with a New York-based financier to settle all remaining debts for the historic Greenbrier Resort, but the Texas-based hotel chain holding the Greenbrier’s current debt remains skeptical.
Thursday marked a court-imposed deadline for the Justice family to close on an agreement with Kennedy Lewis Investment Management (KLIM) for up to $500 million to refinance the Greenbrier’s existing debt and provide needed funds for capital improvements.
Attorneys for the Justice family have provided U.S. District Court Judge Frank W. Volk with three status reports since his May 30 memorandum opinion and order setting the July 16 deadline. In the most recent update filed last Friday, the Justice family said the complexity of the deal may extend the final closing date to the week of July 20.
“Due to the complexity of the transaction, a brief additional period may be required to close, but Defendants and KLIM continue to affirm their commitment to close the transaction expeditiously,” wrote attorneys Steve Ruby and H. Rodgin Cohen. “Defendants will continue to update the Court as appropriate or as requested by the Court.”
Justice’s attorneys wrote that major transactional paperwork is largely finished and that corporate restructuring is underway. To ensure the Greenbrier’s casino license remains secure, the parties have submitted necessary materials to the West Virginia Lottery Commission for regulatory approval.
During an emergency meeting of the Lottery Commission on June 30, members approved the renewal for the Greenbrier Casino Club after resort officials submitted the required audit report after the Greenbrier missed an internal March 20 deadline to submit the auditor materials to Lottery officials and accounting firm Suttle and Stalnaker. However, the Greenbrier will need to submit to quarterly reviews of its finances to Lottery officials over the next 12 months.
The Justice family announced the proposed deal with KLIM in May, which would satisfy the nearly $300 million in loan debt owed to White Sulphur Springs Holdings (WSSH), a company set up by Texas-based TRT Holdings, which purchased the Greenbrier’s remaining loan debt from Virginia-based Carter Bank and Loan in March.
The redacted term sheet outlines a $500 million non-binding financing proposal by KLIM. The loan would be secured by the Greenbrier Resort and connected properties, land and timber assets owned by the Justice family, and guaranteed by U.S. Sen. Justice and other family members. The Justices would be required to create a new holding company and provide KLIM first-lien collateral on all significant resort properties.
WSSH filed a lawsuit against the Justice family in April in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia after negotiations with the Justice family fell through and the loan went into default. Attorneys for WSSH are asking Judge Volk to appoint a receiver for the Greenbrier and miscellaneous properties and issue a permanent injunction against the Justice family to prevent further interference in The Greenbrier’s operations.
In a response filed Wednesday, attorneys for WSSH point out that several developments since Volk’s May 30 order add to the strength of its case that the Greenbrier should be placed in receivership. These include this Greenbrier’s casino license issues, more than $3.3 million in liens filed against the Greenbrier by the IRS, an affiliated club owned by the Justices being sued over alleged fraudulent property transfers, and a separate court federal court case in Kentucky, where a judge accused Justice’s companies of being “alter egos” of the Justice family.
Attorneys for WSSH also said that no one from KLIM has reached out to them about what a total payoff amount for the remaining Greenbrier loan would be and has no information regarding a possible payoff beyond the redacted term sheet. The pointed to language in the Justice family’s most recent status update to puts into doubt whether the WSSH loan would be paid off under a deal with KLIM.
“Defendants represented that: ‘As of May 21, 2026, Defendants have obtained a term sheet for new financing that will allow them to repay the total amount of debt that [WSSH] claims it is owed. That repayment will moot all pending motions and resolve this action,’ wrote WSSH attorney Seth P. Hayes.
“Yet in the Third Status Report, Defendants now state that repayment of their obligations to WSSH is conditioned on ‘any discussions that may occur between the parties to this case regarding resolution of their respective legal claims,'” Hayes continued. “This suggests that rather than satisfying the final and non-appealable judgments, as well as their ever-increasing financial obligations to WSSH, Defendants may precondition payment on unspecified negotiations with WSSH, or further litigation.”
As well as being the parent company of WSSH, TRT Holdings is the parent company of Omni Hotels and Resorts, with more than 50 hotels and luxury properties, including the nearby Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va. In a separate case pending in Greenbrier County Circuit Court, the Justice family alleges that Carter Bank and TRT Holdings engaged in a deceptive conspiracy to orchestrate a hostile takeover of The Greenbrier by unlawfully selling and acquiring the hotel’s debt. TRT Holdings has denied these claims.
The decision for the federal case against the Greenbrier going forward is in the hands of Volk, who said in his May 30 order that any delays beyond his July 16 deadline for the Greenbrier to close with KLIM would test the patience of the court.
“In the face of essentially divesting the Defendants of their highly prized, historic, and long-held assets, a final attempt to avoid that strong medicine tips the balance in favor of allowing them a brief period to consummate the subject transaction,” Volk wrote. “If Defendants seek further extensions for either (1) more extended negotiations with, or financing due diligence by, the financing partner, or (2) to allow additional forays with other lenders, the balance of prejudice will likely shift rather abruptly.”
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