Houston Chronicle

Houston Farmers Market, the 18-acre redevelopment of a decades-old produce market on Airline Drive, could open as early as next spring with new shops and restaurants, including a high-end butcher and two dining concepts from lauded Houston chef Chris Shepherd.

“The goal for food here is really to bring a snapshot of the city,” Shepherd said Friday afternoon during a tour of the project for which he is a consultant. “This can be a place where you see all of the city.”

The tour focused on new buildings that have been added to the property — now a construction zone but once a lively hub of produce sellers hawking fruits, vegetables and other goods in this north Houston community inside the North Loop just west of Interstate 45.

Commercial real estate firm MLB Capital Partners purchased the property in spring 2017 from the Farmers’ Marketing Association of Houston Inc., which had owned and operated the market since its inception in 1942.