Dallas-based\u00a0Omni Hotels and Resorts could be positioned to scoop up a historic golf course in West Virginia currently owned by debt-ridden U.S. Senator Jim Justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Public records indicate that TRT Holdings, Omni\u2019s parent company, recently purchased the outstanding debt on The Greenbrier, an 11,000-acre resort and golf course dating back more than 200 years that has previously held PGA Tour events and the Ryder Cup. The Greenbrier has been owned by Justice\u2019s family since 2009 after the resort had fallen on hard times, but a 2025 Forbes report<\/a> shows the Republican senator from West Virginia could be more than $1 billion in debt.<\/p>\n On March 26, West Virginia’s Carter Bank and Trust, which has loaned Justice hundreds of millions of dollars, announced it had sold the first lien debt on Justice\u2019s interests, including The Greenbrier, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Per the filing, Carter Bank received $290 million in the transaction from an \u201cunaffiliated third party,\u201d for nonperforming and nonaccruing loans with an outstanding principal amount of $209 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n Records in Greenbrier County, W.V., show that on March 25, Carter Bank transferred the outstanding debt on The Greenbrier to White Sulphur Springs Holdings, an entity with the same address as TRT Holdings, in a document signed by Michael G. Smith, also an executive at\u00a0TRT.\u00a0<\/p>\n The transaction gives Omni and TRT Holdings, owned and operated by Dallas billionaire Robert Rowling and his son Blake, significant influence over The Greenbrier, and first rights to the resort if Justice defaults on his debt. Should the resort eventually change hands,\u00a0Omni could bring valuable resources to The Greenbrier, which is still recovering from floods in 2016 that damaged all four of the resort\u2019s golf courses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Omni operates about 50 upscale hotels and resorts in North America, including several golf courses, like the Omni PGA Frisco Resort<\/a> that abuts the PGA of America\u2019s North Texas headquarters. The company has recently renovated several golf courses, including Austin\u2019s Barton Springs and Amelia Island in Florida, which it bought out of bankruptcy in 2010 for $67 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n