Harrisonburg leaders have a vision for how to make their downtown thrive. Barry Kelley is helping bring that vision into a reality.

“I know downtown pretty well. And I thought this was the perfect area for the kind of project that we were thinking about doing,” said Kelley, who with fellow property developer Andrew Forward has turned a Downtown Harrisonburg parcel that was most recently a used-car lot into a four-story, mixed-use architectural wonder called the Urban Exchange.

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On East Market Street, amid the bustle of the city's downtown, a natural oasis has sprouted in perhaps the most unlikely of places.

Dozens of ginkgo and crape myrtle trees and a selection of native plants line a pathway, while benches offer a place for folks to enjoy the scenery.

It is not the city's latest pocket park. Instead, this organic retreat is located two floors up on the roof of the retail space and parking garage at Urban Exchange.

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