Fencing blocks off 17th Street and the Farmers’ Market — the first step in a $4.3 million facelift that will transform the street and the marketplace between Main and Franklin streets into a European-style plaza. Despite the work, restaurants and shops that face the market remain open for business, with owners and operators hoping customers will continue to stop by. The transformation is expected to be finished by March. When done, the revamped market is to be the outdoor extension of nearby Main Street Station, whose interior has been redone and includes a huge, glass-faced event space, a soon-to-open tourist welcome center and room for retail shops. The project is part of the city’s spending to rejuvenate the Shockoe Bottom area. Nearby to the west, the city plans to invest more than $19 million to develop a museum-style space to recall Richmond’s role in the slave trade more than 150 years ago.
