Virginia
West Virginia gov's historic Greenbrier hotel avoids foreclosure as he runs for Senate
The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has reached an agreement with a credit collection company to avoid the foreclosure of their historic hotel as he runs for US Senate, the resort announced Thursday.
The Republican governor’s family had been set to appear in court Friday to ask a judge to halt the auction of The Greenbrier, which had been scheduled for Tuesday.
That hearing has been canceled.
“It’s taken care of, and we move forward, and The Greenbrier is as whole as it can possibly be,” Justice said at a news briefing. “The Greenbrier is going to be in our family forevermore.”
The hotel came under threat of auction after JPMorgan Chase sold a longstanding loan taken out by the governor to a credit collection company, McCormick 101 — a subsidiary of Beltway Capital — which declared it to be in default.
In a statement, 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 family said it had already secured the money, although the Justices did not specify the amount.
“Under the agreement, Beltway Capital will Beltway reserves its rights if the Justice family fails to perform,” the statement reads.
A message left with Beltway Capital wasn’t immediately returned Thursday.
Justice defended his family’s business practices at Thursday’s briefing and repeated past claims that JPMorgan Chase’s sale of The Greenbrier loan was a politically motivated effort to hurt his US Senate campaign.
“We had a 14-year working relationship with JPMorgan, and then shortly after the primary where I was the winner — hands down, you’re going to the U.S. Senate, no matter what anybody says under the sun — it makes, it made, total no sense other than political, it made no sense at all,” he said.
Justice said that his family had made payments on the JPMorgan as recently as June and that it was notified the loan had been sold in July without prior warning. JPMorgan Chase did not respond to an email seeking comment.
If the hotel had been sold, Justice said, “there would have been carnage and devastation like you can’t imagine to the great people of The Greenbrier,” referring to jobs that could have been lost.
The auction, which had been set to occur at a courthouse Tuesday in the small city of Lewisburg, involved 60.5 acres, including the hotel and parking lot.
Justice family attorneys filed a motion this week for a preliminary injunction to try to halt the auction of The Greenbrier.
They claimed that a 2014 deed of trust approved by the governor was defective because JPMorgan didn’t obtain consent from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.’s directors or owners, and that auctioning the property violates the company’s obligation to act in “good faith and deal fairly” with the corporation.
They also argued, in part, that the auction would harm the economy and threaten hundreds of jobs.
About 400 employees at The Greenbrier hotel received notice this week from an attorney for the health care provider Amalgamated National Health Fund saying they would lose coverage Tuesday, the scheduled date of the auction, unless the Justice family paid $2.4 million in missing contributions.
Peter Bostic, a union official with the Workers United Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board, said that the Justice family hasn’t contributed to employees’ health fund in four months, and that an additional $1.2 million in contributions will soon be due, according to the letter the board received from Ronald Richman, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, the firm representing the fund.
The letter also said some contributions were taken out of employees’ paychecks but never transferred to the fund, concerning union officials.
Justice dismissed concerns about the claims Thursday, telling reporters that “insurance payments were made and were being made on a regular basis.”
“There is no way that the great union employees at The Greenbrier are going to go without insurance,” he said. “There is no possible way.”
Justice is running for Senate against Democrat Glenn Elliott, a former mayor of Wheeling. 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.
He began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, after buying The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in 2009.
The hotel has hosted US presidents, royalty and, from 2010 until 2019, a PGA Tour tournament.
Justice’s family also owns The Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private luxury community with a members-only “resort within a resort.”
That property was scheduled to be auctioned off this year in an attempt by Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Virginia, to recover more than $300 million in business loans defaulted by the governor’s family, but a court battle delayed that process.
The Virginia Cavaliers continue to thrill as they’re moving on to the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament!
UVA is the first double-digit seed to make the Sweet 16 in the women’s bracket since 2022, and it’s the Cavaliers’ first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2000.
After a fourth quarter surge to push overtime, the No. 10 Cavaliers took over in double overtime, stunning No. 2 Iowa with a 83-75 win. It was a group effort on the floor, but the Cavs were led by Kymora Johnson with 28 points.
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After advancing to the Sweet 16, the Cavaliers will face No. 3 TCU in Sacramento, Calif. on Saturday, March 28.
Knowing that matchup is set, here is everything you need to know to buy Virginia vs. TCU Sweet 16 March Madness tickets.
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Virginia vs. TCU March Madness Sweet 16 tickets
Virginia women’s March Madness Sweet 16 opponent
Virginia reached the Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 2 Iowa on Monday afternoon. Now, they’ll play No. 3 TCU in the Sweet 16.
Virginia vs. TCU women’s March Madness Sweet 16 schedule
Virginia will take on the TCU Horned Frogs after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes on Monday afternoon. The game will be played on either Friday, March 27 or Saturday, March 28. Shop Virginia vs. TCU Sweet 16 tickets now.
More March Madness: Everything fans need to know about the 2026 NCAA Tournament
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UVA women’s basketball Sweet 16 game locations
Virginia will play its Sweet 16 game at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., against TCU on Saturday, March 28. Shop your Virginia NCAA Tournament tickets now.
When is March Madness 2026?
The First Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament tipped off the 2026 March Madness tournament on Wednesday, March 18. The two rounds run between Friday, March 20 and Monday, March 23. The tournament concludes with the Final Four on Friday, April 3 and the National Championship game on Sunday, April 5.
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March Madness 2026 full schedule for the women’s tournament
- March 20-21: First round
- March 22-23: Second round
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PHILADELPHIA − Maybe all those blown leads in the regular season were good for Tennessee basketball?
While it didn’t surrender a double-digit big lead, Tennessee fans certainly felt pangs of anxiety when Virginia pulled ahead late at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
This time, though, instead of collapsing, the No. 6 Vols (24-11) banded together and pulled off the 79-72 victory over No. 3 Virginia (30-6) in the Men’s NCAA Tournament on March 22.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes guided the program to its fourth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance. The road gets tougher for the Vols against No. 2 Iowa State (29-7) at the United Center in Chicago on March 27 (10:10 p.m. ET, TBS).
How did Tennessee avoid a meltdown? Well, Barnes isn’t really sure.
He just knows they won.
“We found a way,” he said. “We found a way to get it done. These guys, they’ve worked hard for us all year and worked hard competing against each other every day.”
Tennessee believe it needed regular season heartbreak
Tennessee largely bottled up Virginia’s leading scorer Thijs De Ridder through much of the game. However, the 23-year-old freshman from Belgium found his rhythm late in the game and drilled a 3-pointer to give the Cavaliers a 71-70 lead with 2:03 remaining.
In the huddle, Tennessee sophomore guard Bishop Boswell knew they’d be fine. He cited increased “poise” gained from months of SEC trials.
“We have been in these situations time in and time out, and I’ve seen us come out on top, so I know how tough we are,” he said. “Being in those situations helps you for times like this. The SEC is so tough, its such a tough league, you’re going to be in a bunch of close games. We were able to come out with some wins, and we were able to come out with some losses that we were able to learn from.
“We’ve been battled-tested.”
Forward J.P. Estrella believes those tests were necessary.
“I don’t think so,” he said if Tennessee would’ve won this game a month ago. “I feel like these past couple months have been huge for us playing some tough games, playing in the SEC Tournament, playing the game the other night. These games are crucial for us. When we keep playing basketball with each other it builds confidence and we keep winning.
“The momentum keeps going and I feel like it’s going to keep on rolling into Chicago.”
Tennessee’s defense papers over late mistakes
The Vols were anything but mistake-free in the closing minutes of the game.
Freshman Nate Ament ran the baseline after a missed shot. Senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie threw an inbounds pass into the second row. A defensive breakdown left Virginia’s Jacari White wide-open for a 3-pointer with seconds remaining.
It was the defense, though, that kept Tennessee afloat. The Vols kept one of the ACC’s top offenses under its 80.4 points per game average. Their frontcourt physicality bothered Virginia all game.
“I thought we played great,” Estrella said about Tennessee’s frontcourt. “We’re all just some dogs on offense and defense. We got stops when we needed them. I feel like we could’ve gotten a couple rebounds − me in particular, I could’ve grabbed a couple with two hands − but other than that, we were just some dogs tonight and I feel like we need to be that every single night.”
The Cavaliers had 26 points in the paint, but they shot under 50% on layups. Tennessee 6-foot-11 center Felix Okpara registered four blocks and often deterred Virginia players from entering his domain.
“Felix Okpara, that’s the best five-man in the country,” junior Jaylen Carey said about his teammate. “Best shot blocker in the country.”
Okpara credited the entire frontcourt for the standout defensive performance.
“That’s our identity right there,” he said. “That’s Tennessee basketball right there.”
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email: wynton.jackson@knoxnews.com
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Virginia Haines James, age 85, of Vidalia, who’s sunrise was October 13, 1940 and sunset was Friday, March 20, 2026, at Appling Healthcare in Baxley after an extended illness. She as a native of Montgomery County, growing up in Mt. Vernon and was a 1958 graduate of Montgomery County High School. She married her married her husband in 1958, he was in the Army, and as a military family they lived in several places, including Okinawa, Japan, France, and Germany. Upon his retirement, they moved to Vidalia where she lived the rest of her life. She joined the Mt. Vernon Methodist Church on December 14, 1951 and later was a member of the First Baptist Church of Vidalia and where she sang in the choir. She was Bethany Home Administrator for more than twenty years. She enjoyed sewing, the outdoors, yard work, gospel music, singing, collecting ladybugs, genealogy, and traveling to cemeteries all over south Georgia. She loved buying Bibles and giving them to her family and friends.
She is preceded in death by the love of her life, Roscoe James; parents, William Elijah Haines and Mary Elizabeth Byrd Haines; one brother, William Haines; and two sisters, Sarah Haines Bishop and Ann Haines.
She is survived by two children, Roscoe David James and wife Lorie of Baxley, and Virginia Beth James Smith of Wilmington Island; four grandchildren, Jessica James and Drew James of the Center Community, Levi James (USN) of Charleston, South Carolina, and Connor Smith and wife Hannah of Rincon; one brother, James “Jimmy” Haines and wife Daisy of Treutlen County; one sister, Naomi Jean Haines Duckworth and husband Bruce of Mt. Vernon; and several nieces and nephews.
The funeral service will be held on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026, at 3:00 in the chapel of Ronald V. Hall Funeral Home with her nephew, Pastor Daniel Caraway officiating. Interment will follow at the Long Pond Cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Wednesday afternoon from 2:00 until just prior to the service.
Flowers are accepted, or those desiring can help continue her legacy by donating to The Gideons International, PO Box 156, Vidalia, GA 30475.
The family would like to express their appreciation and gratitude to the nurses and staff of Appling Nursing and Rehab Pavilion for their loving care and support.
Ronald V. Hall Funeral Home of Vidalia is in charge of arrangements.
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Virginia (Haines) James, please visit our floral store.
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