W.Va. resort's assets include shotguns, horses

The posh playground for the prominent and rich, The Greenbrier Resort, has nearly $142 million worth of assets including a $3,823 potato peeler, a $205 fudge warmer and Beretta white onyx shotguns worth $6,666, according to financial statements filed in advance of a federal bankruptcy hearing Wednesday.

Assets also include a couple of machines that dry out swimsuits in seconds costing $2,182 each, a $3,740 pig cooker and two white-tail deer heads worth a total of $500.

The place for presidents and royalty in southern West Virginia recently filed pages of personal property totaling nearly $44 million and real property worth $97.6 million.

Attorneys for the 6,500-acre resort and site of a Cold War nuclear bunker for Congress are scheduled to appear before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin R. Huennekens in Richmond on Wednesday.

CSX Corp., the Jacksonville, Fla., railroad company that owns The Greenbrier, said the resort filed for bankruptcy March 19, but is hoping to close a $130 million sale to Bethesda, Md.-based hotel giant Marriott by the end of June.

Tom Botts, hotel and travel consultant for Hudson Crossing, said he's not at all surprised by a list that includes a collection of firearms valued at $16,191 and a fleet of more than 100 vehicles, including a 1954 Oren Special fire truck and a GMC street sweeper, valued at $287,181. Its collection of linens is worth about $649,000, while its fleet of golf carts is worth nearly $253,000.

"It's in the middle of nowhere," Botts said. "It essentially functions as its own little town."

The 721-room stately hotel in White Sulphur Springs features three championship golf courses, indoor and outdoor tennis courts and a 40,000-square-foot spa. Overnight rates range from $275 for a guest room to $900 for the presidential suite with seven bedrooms and private baths.

Its liabilities total $107 million, with most of that - $94.9 million - owed to its owner. But it also owes its hourly employees a total of $698,331 in wages, $134,022 in bonuses and $2.1 million for accrued vacation.

Botts said many of the resorts' assets speak to the sheer size of its grounds and accommodations.

"The number of rooms there is just jaw-dropping," he said. "You can rent everything from a cottage with four rooms to a grand mansion that has its own kitchen, dining room and bedrooms. It is very much the old-style aristocratic kind of resort."

As for the $3,823 potato peeler? Botts said that probably comes from having to be able to serve 150 to 250 servings of mashed potatoes at one time.

"It really is a hotel like none other I've been to," he said. "It's a blast to the past. It's a trip."

---

On the Net:

http://www.greenbrier.com