People came to Harrisonburg from across Virginia Wednesday for ideas on downtown development.

They're planning for the future of downtown life across the Commonwealth, and they're taking ideas from the Friendly City. On Wednesday, two days of workshops on improving downtown vitality began.

Revitalizing downtown is one of Harrisonburg's biggest projects.

Jerry van Eimeren came from South Boston in southern Virginia, looking for ways to improve downtown life there.

"In just the five-year, six-year period, I've seen tremendous change down here," says van Eimeren. "The restaurant culture is just tremendous. There's a lot more activity, the shops."

Even in the down economy, downtown Harrisonburg is holding up. When one store closes, another one opens.

Jeff Sadler is program manager for Virginia Main Street, an organization that builds up downtown life in communities across the Commonwealth.

"If you take a break now because things aren't going well, then when the recovery begins, people start new businesses and new jobs, they're going to look for places that are prepared for them," says Sadler.

Consuella Caudill is the assistant town manager in Vinton, near Roanoke. She's drawn to the new housing units like Urban Exchange that are slated to open soon.

"The downtown living, the housing that is coming on board here is great and very interesting to Vinton as far as having that mix of retail and housing," says Caudill.

"It's clean. It's kept up. And, those are some of the things that I take back with me to our downtown," says Sadler.

The number of housing units in downtown Harrisonburg will more than double in the next year. On top of that, five more restaurants are expected to open in the next six months.