Chicago-based Corus Bankshares (NASDAQ: CORS) released its 2008 earnings earlier this week and it wasn’t pretty. A $456.5 million loss for the year has raised serious speculation that the bank will be able to continue normal operation into the future.

The main culprits behind these losses are the 17 loans to condo and apartment projects in the South Florida region. The total value of these loans is $1.11 billion and nearly all of them were experiencing some sort of problem by the end of the year.

With many of these projects in serious trouble, Corus will more than likely have to foreclose on a number of the buildings with outstanding loans. Corus already foreclosed on the Tao condo in Sunrise, FL last year and is completing construction with the anticipation of selling all of the 396 units.

Currently Corus has started foreclosure proceedings on three unidentified projects with estimated loan values totaling almost $200 million. With these actions taking place, the state of the economy and the continued increase in unemployment, we will have to pay close attention to see if Corus is able to ride out this difficult situation.