WATERLOO -- The big story of 2007 was the crisis that rocked the nation's banking and lending industry, triggered by a wave of defaults on subprime mortgages. Lenders incurred massive losses. Housing prices plummeted. So did the stock market.

The other part of that big story was, the Cedar Valley has been insulated from national mortgage and credit meltdown. Home prices here never inflated the way they did in other parts of country. Borrowers didn't snap up subprime mortgages -- mortgages with teaser rates that reset to a higher percentage after a period of time -- in as great of numbers. The housing market remained healthy.

In the Cedar Valley, the year could be remembered as a year of new development. Mudd Advertising opened a new state-of-the-art creative and production facility. The founder and president of a major financial firm announced his intention to move his company from downtown Chicago to the Cedar Valley. Target announced its plans to build a cold food storage warehouse in Cedar Falls. Work started on the long-anticipated Cedar Valley TechWorks after a $17 million gift of land and buildings by Deere & Co. The Isle Hotel and Casino opened for business. And so on.

Here's a look at how the year in business unfolded.

January

Jan. 1 - Allen Occupational Health Clinic opens in Pinnacle Prairie.

Jan. 3 - Mudd Advertising opens a new 36,000-square-foot creative and production facility.

Jan. 6 - Sinclair Broadcasting Co., unable to come to a retransmission agreement with Mediacom, pulls KGAN TV off the cable provider's lineup for its eastern Iowa subscribers just after midnight.

Jan. 9 - GCVA's board of directors votes to support LS Power's proposed $1.3 billion coal-fired power plant, "the largest economic development project ever proposed in the Cedar Valley…"

Jan. 19 - The new Walgreen's store at Thunder Ridge in Cedar Falls opens its doors.

February

Feb. 2 - KGAN-TV returns to the air, after Mediacom and Sinclair Broadcasting reached a retransmission agreement, just in time for the Super Bowl two days later.

Feb. 16 - Deere & Co. donates $17.4 million in buildings, land, technical assistance and financial resources to a nonprofit group for the development of the Cedar Valley TechWorks. The TechWorks is anticipated to be in operation in August 2009

March

March 1 - Arrowhead Medical Center, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare's new medical facility, opens in Pinnacle Prairie in Cedar Falls.

March 8 - Cedar Falls native Russ Wassendorf says he plans to relocate the headquarters of his company, Peregrine Financial Group, the 30th-largest non-bank financial firm in the U.S., from Chicago to land he would buy from Beaver Hills Country Club near Cedar Falls. He plans to built an environmentally friendly building.

March 14 - Fire destroys The Rose of Waterloo, a senior housing complex under construction at Oak Avenue and Franklin Street. Investigators later determine the cause of human origin, but stopped short of labeling it arson.

March 20 -- Fire destroys the 25-square-foot Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing building, north of Plainfield, when oil leaks out of a machine and onto the floor. High winds help spread the fire through the facility. The company makes soy-based lubricants for machines.

Also on this day, the Peregrine Financial Group's plans to relocate its headquarters to Cedar Falls hit a roadblock when the Black Hawk County Planning & Zoning Commission, faced with neighbors opposed to the project, votes to recommend denying the company's request to rezone land in Beaver Hills from agricultural to light commercial.

March 29 -- Nearly two stories of a wall at the Oddfellows Building in downtown Cedar Falls collapsed, shutting down the Pump Haus bar and delaying plans to move Joker's Comedy Club to the building's third floor.

April

April 16 - Target Corp. announces plans to build a 400,000-square-foot cold-storage perishable grocery distribution warehouse in Cedar Falls.

April 23 - The Cedar Falls City Council votes to send a letter to the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors, endorsing plans to build Peregrine Financial Group's headquarters on land in the Beaver Hills area.

April 24 - The Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors ignore the recommendation of the Planning & Zoning Commission and approve Peregrine Financial Group's request to rezone land, clearing the way for the company's relocation from Chicago to near Cedar Falls.

May

May 9 - Demolition begins on Deere & Co.'s old Westfield site to make room for the new Cedar Valley TechWorks.

May 25 - Two months after it was closed due to a wall collapse, the Pump Haus reopened in a new location, at 311 Main St. in Cedar Falls.

Also on this day, longtime Courier Editor Saul Shapiro leaves the newspaper after 24 years, for a new position at Wartburg College.

May 31 - Traer Manufacturing announces it will close its auto parts-making plant by July 2008, eliminating 150 local jobs.

June

June 1 - The VGM Group opens the doors to its 60,000 square foot, $10 million expansion of its headquarters at Ansborough Avenue and San Marnan Drive.

June 17 - The Waterloo City Council agreed to apply for state funding to help a non-profit spinoff of the VGM Group, Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation, move into the Walker Shoes building downtown. It will cost an estimated $3.9 million to start up the company, including $1.5 million to remodel the building. The company is expected to add 47 jobs over three years. HQAA specializes in mandated accreditation in the home medical equipment industry.

June 30 - The Isle of Capri Hotel & Casino opens its doors in Waterloo.

July

July 24-26 - RAGBRAI overnights in Hampton, Cedar Falls and Independence, respectively.

August

Martin Brothers took out a permit for $4.8 million, 50,000-square-foot expansion to its facility at 406 Viking Road, in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park.

Aug. 1- Bridges Senior Living, 120 apartments of independent-living senior apartments, opens in the old Starlight Village hotel at 214 Washington St. The project cost between $8 million and $10 million.

Aug. 9 - Wayne Engineering announces it plans to move Wayne Sweeper, which manufactures street sweepers, to Traer. The facility will employ between 20-30 people initially, but climbing eventually to around 150 workers.

Aug. 29 - A mile-long caravan of Case/IH combines drove from Dike to Grundy Center as Titan Machinery moved its inventory from the former Walterman Implement to its new dealership.

Also on this day, the owners of the Broom Factory Restaurant appeal to the public for help in repairing the restaurant's roof and keeping it open. The restaurant's flat roof had leaked for years and a portion of it collapsed around the bar area,

September

Sept. 4 - Demolition begins on Allen Hospital's Dack Hall, to make way for the Pauline Barrett Pavillion. The $47 million, 70-square-foot pavillion is the largest expansion in the hospital's history.

Sept. 10 - The Cedar Falls City Council decided not to offer any financial help to the Broom Factory restaurant, to help repair its roof.

Sept. 13 - Joker's Comedy Club opened its doors at its new location in the Oddfellows building in downtown Cedar Falls, completing the move from its former University Avenue site.

Also on this day, longtime managing editor of the Courier Nancy Raffensperger Newhoff was promoted to editor. She replaced Saul Shapiro, who resigned in May.

Sept. 24 - The Waterloo City Council unanimously a development agreement with Menards Inc. to build a 162,000-square-foot store and lumber yard on the city's east side. The store will receive 10 years of complete property tax rebates on its full value, provided it maintains a minimum taxable value of $7 million.

Sept. 28 - The state permanently revoked an insurance agent's license following allegations he lied, cheated and stole from customers. Jack Straw of Cedar Rapids and formerly of Dunkerton was accused by the Iowa Insurance Division of altering and misrepresenting policies, misleading clients, forging signatures and making unauthorized withdrawals from clients' annuity policies. The agency also alleges Straw converted funds for his personal use, issued reimbursement checks that bounced, made verbal threats to clients and sold securities though he was not licensed for such transactions.

October

Oct. 1 - Around 750 Waterloo-area John Deere salaried retirees objected to changes in their healthcare benefits that Deere announced will take effect in 2008.

Oct. 11 - The state City Development Board rejected Waterloo's request to annex land for the construction of the LS Power coal-fire power plant.

Oct. 22 - The Cedar Falls City Council votes to give Wayne Engineering 3.8 acres for two planned expansions, totaling 38,000 square feet, $1.35 million and 39 new jobs.

Oct. 30 - Allen Hospital breaks ground on the Pauline Barrett Pavilion, will house Allen's emergency services and heart center. The expansion is slated for completion in spring 2009.

November

Nov. 15 - Monsanto Corp. said it wants to build a $90 million corn seed production plant in Black Hawk County, and is still working out the details on the site it wants to purchase.

Also on this day, a subcommittee of the Cedar Falls Planning & Zoning Commission approved plans to build a 133,000-square-foot Target Store at Highway 58 and Viking Road in Cedar Falls. The property's developer submitted plans for the store in October.

Nov. 21 - An independent report, prepared by UNI professor William Stigliani, recommends the Black Hawk County Board of Health support a statewide moratorium on building permits for new coal power plants because of health concerns. The suggestions, if enacted, could kill LS Power's plans to build a 750 megawatt, $1.3 billion coal power plant in Waterloo.

Nov. 30 - Waterloo appeals the City Development Board's rejection of its annexation request for the LS Power power plant.

December

Dec. 25 - Broom Factory owners Youri and Lynn Dimitrov announce their proposal to raze the Broom Factor restaurant and replace it with two four-story condos.

Dec. 29 - Just nine months after it was destroyed by fire, The Rose of Waterloo, a senior housing complex, allows its first residents to move in.