Ameracare Inc., the Spokane company that developed and operates Evergreen Valley Retirement Center, allegedly is in default on two loans, and property on Evergreen where the retirement facility is located is slated to be sold in a trustees sale next month to satisfy the debts.


Principal and interest owed on the two loans total nearly $1.6 million, according to a published legal notice on the sale, which is to be held Aug. 10. The money is owed to Coghlan Family Corp., says Michael Staub, a Spokane attorney who represents Coghlan Family Corp.


The Coghlan family has tried twice earlier to hold foreclosure proceedings on the propertyonce on Sept. 22, 2000, and another time on Jan. 5, 2001. On two occasions, John Coghlan, president of Coghlan Family Corp., gave Ameracare an opportunity to obtain loan approval for financing from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. When written loan approval wasnt produced as promised, the Coghlan family decided to proceed with the sale in January, but that sale was stayed because Ameracare had filed for protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court here to reorganize under Chapter 11, according to an affidavit by Coghlan, filed as part of the bankruptcy case.


Coghlan said in his March affidavit that three additional lien Deeds of Trust against the property and unpaid taxes increased the total debt to $6.5 million, while the Spokane County Assessors Office had given the property an assessed value of $3.4 million.


The bankruptcy court here lifted the stay last month, allowing the trustees sale to proceed, Staub says. He says the court determined that there was little or no equity remaining in the property to pay the debts owed to Coghlan Family Corp.


Staub adds that he believes the foreclosure action will be preferable to residents of the retirement facility than if the case were to proceed through bankruptcy court because any new owner who obtains the property through a trustees sale must agree to honor the contracts that Ameracare already has in place with residents there.


Earlier this month, Ameracare filed an appeal to reverse the courts decision to lift the stay. The appeal could delay the Aug. 10 sale, Staub says. Donald Hackney, a Spokane attorney who represents Ameracare, couldnt be reached.


Meanwhile, the residents of Evergreen Valley filed an emergency motion last month, compelling John Tucker, Ameracares chairman, to appear before them and to produce certain financial documents. In the motion, the residents accused Tucker of misusing more than $2 million the company has received from them. The motion contends that Tucker might have used development funds from Ameracare for purposes of funding other failed business operations in Spokane, Phoenix, and Florida.


John Munding, a Spokane attorney who is representing various Evergreen Valley Retirement Center residents, couldnt be reached for comment.


Evergreen Valley Retirement Center, which opened in 1997, initially was expected to include 72 living units in seven buildings, as well as a two-story, 12,000-square-foot common building. All of the buildings were to be constructed on 6.4 acres located between Mamer and Evergreen roads, with Mission Avenue to the north and Broadway Avenue to the south. Five of the seven residential buildings were to include 12 units each, and the other two were to have six units apiece.


Not all of those buildings were constructed. Although its unclear how many have been completed. As of January 1999, the retirement center had completed the common building and three of the residential buildings, which had a total of 30 units. Dennis Redford, then a sales manager at Evergreen Valley, said Ameracare had begun work on a fourth residential building and was to complete it in April of that year, and had hoped to break ground on a fifth residential building later that year. The 42 units the center has now, however, is well short of the 72 that were planned.