— A master plan for the future of the North Carolina State Farmers' Market in Raleigh envisions a major makeover, one that would add shops, restaurants, event space and even condos. But wholesalers who sell produce out of one building at the market were surprised to see they have no place in that plan.

"We started asking questions and found out they had planned to remove us from the market totally," said Lynn Ford of Fords Produce Company.

As part of the master plan, Fords and about 10 other wholesalers will have to find another place to do business.

"What we have told everyone is that the value of the dirt that that market sits on will dictate everything," said David Smith, a spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. "... It stings everywhere in and around Raleigh. The value of the dirt dictates everything."

The plan was developed by the NC Department of Agriculture and paid for by the Dix Park Conservancy. It frames the State Farmers' Market as an access point to Dix Park.

State leaders say the market will become more profitable if they partner with the park and turn the farmer’s market into more of a destination, even if it means getting rid of the wholesalers.

Ford is not convinced.

"A lot of towns worry about being a food desert, and right here you have a food hub right in the center of a metropolitan area, and I don’t understand why they’re trying to destroy that," he said.

Jessica Ward McNeill of Ward's Produce sees a risk to farmers in the elimination of the wholesale barns from the farmers' market. She shared this statement with WRAL News:

"Ward’s Produce strongly disagrees with the Master Plan expansions as proposed by the Department of Agriculture and funded by The Dix Conservancy. These revisions, while well-intentioned have the potential to hurt small farmers, disenfranchise thriving local charities and irreparably harm the most profitable wholesale market in North Carolina. While proponents of the Master Plan have suggested that the changes won’t have an effect for 20 years, they fail to appreciate that many of these family-owned businesses have been in operation for more than four generations. So, we think and plan 20 years ahead. We always have. I encourage my fellow Raleigh citizens to think carefully about this move and implore the Commission to have a more robust and open-minded conversation with the community before moving any revisions forward."

Any change is a long way off. The plan will take time and money, an estimated $50 million. None of those funds have yet been allocated, Smith said.