The world-famous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV - a 6,500 acre four-star resort founded in 1778, a past stop of US presidents and royalty, and locaton of a once-secret Cold War era nuclear bunker for Congress - has become another victim of the economy. The resort filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-March, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, located in Richmond.

Greenbrier is owned by the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation (GHC). GHC is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Greenbrier Resort and Management Corporation, which is wholly owned by CSX Corporation. According to bankruptcy documents, CSX, a railroad company based in Jacksonville, Fla., shut down an internal cash fund for the resort last December, just as the economy had started to nose-dive. CSX has owned the Greenbrier since 1910.

The Greenbrier has been losing money for the past five years, and had debts to CSX of $91 million. With costly renovations and accelerating losses, CSX insisted that Greenbrier file for bankrtupcy.

Along with the bankruptcy announcement, Greenbrier said that hotel operator Marriott International of Bethesda, MD was willing to buy the Greenbrier for up to $130 million, pending court approval, new labor contracts with potentially 9 unions representing over 900 employees, and a court-supervised auction process to allow other qualified buyers to have an opportunity to bid on the Greenbrier.

If no new labor deal is reached, the Greenbrier could eventually be forced to liquidate.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Resort Operator News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.