Trouble is brewing for Joanie White-Wagoner, administrator and vice president at the new $150 million Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway.
She and her husband, Darren Wagoner, are facing foreclosure on a 45-acre Conway horse ranch and restaurant complex that they bought less than a year ago.
In a complaint filed last month in Faulkner County Circuit Court, Centennial Bank claims that the Wagoners and their Inception Management Group LLC are in default on about $2.7 million in debt connected to the Back Achers Ranch and Legends Bar & Grill at 3725 College Ave. The complaint says that Wagoner and White-Wagoner failed to make payments on a $2.5 million mortgage they assumed in buying the property from Letitia McMaster in May, as well as a $200,000 business loan from the same time.
The property, including the restaurant and a 47,000-SF arena, appears to be out of business. The restaurant’s listed phone number has been disconnected, and repeated calls to the ranch number drew a busy signal.
White-Wagoner was named to lead the Conway hospital a year ago, long before its opening in September. Previously, she served as the administrator and chief operating officer of Texas General Hospital in Midlothian, Texas. She is an Air Force veteran and longtime rider, according to various interviews.
The Centennial complaint, filed by Sherwood attorney Vaughan Hankins, says that the Wagoners personally guaranteed the loans, and that as of Dec. 22 they owed $2.5 million and accrued interest of $46,780 on the mortgage alone. “The Bank’s right of foreclosure has become absolute” on both loans, the complaint says.
White-Wagoner did not return a call to her office at the hospital on Thursday, and no response had been filed in court.