Condo King Corus Weighs Its Options
The bank that funded a big part of the condominium boom is considering selling all or part of itself as rising defaults force it to seek capital.
Corus Bankshares Inc., a symbol of the exuberance for glass-and-steel condo towers from Miami to Los Angeles, reported a $260.7 million quarterly loss late Friday and said that more than one-third of its $4.1 billion in outstanding loans were nonperforming. Amid what it called a “precipitous decline” in property values, the Chicago lender also warned that banking regulators may soon strip Corus of its standing as a well-capitalized bank and impose higher cash requirements.
Corus is one of the few lenders to report that the Treasury Department intends to reject the bank’s application for funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
Some analysts don’t believe the bank can raise the capital necessary to survive.