As Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse grapples with millions in debt and related woes, the state is worried the Baltimore developer won't be able to handle its lead role in the long-discussed State Center redevelopment, Annie Linskey reports today.

From the story:

Maryland officials still hope to ask the Board of Public Works to approve in June a master development agreement that would allow the project to break ground by late 2010, said Michael A. Gaines Sr., assistant secretary for real estate in the Department of General Services. But Howard Freedlander, an aide to State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, said "we've been told that the state is examining the structure of the development team in light of what everybody knows" about Struever Bros.

Meanwhile, the city is letting the developer "walk away from $700,000 in loans" on another project. From the same story:

On Wednesday, the city's Board of Estimates renegotiated a loan it granted Struever 25 years ago to redevelop Church Square Shopping Center in East Baltimore.

The travails of the housing market and economy at large make this a difficult time for most developers. There's been a lot of crystal-ball pronouncements from economists lately about when we can expect things to improve.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, offered a forecast at a recent National Association of Home Builders conference. He said sales have probably bottomed and prices will likely stop falling at the end of the year, with foreclosures peaking at the beginning of next year, according to the NAHB Nation's Building News. (This is nationally speaking, of course. Experiences can vary at a local level.)

Also:

From peak to trough, there will be a 36% decline in prices, and it will be more than a decade before home prices return to the highs recorded during the recent housing boom, he added.