When the Big Star grocery store on Cotton Street closed in 2018, it appeared destined to remain one of Greenwood’s many empty buildings.
Tennill Cannon had a different idea.
A former city councilman, Cannon, 48, has been involved in real estate for years.
The building at 206 Cotton St. first opened in 1959 as a Piggly Wiggly. It was converted into a Big Star in 1998, which stayed open for two more decades.
“I enjoy taking something that people see as rundown or condemned and turning it into something you’re walking in and you’re like, ‘Wow,’” Cannon said.
Additionally, he saw an opportunity to bring something new to Greenwood — a large, upscale event space.
Enter The Cannon Center. Located across the street from the Greenwood-Leflore Public Library, The Cannon Center is Greenwood’s newest location for events, wedding parties and concerts. It is 13,000 square feet.
Cannon purchased the building in 2020 and held on to it until beginning renovations in 2023.
“When we walked in, it was pretty bad — real dirty, dingy, dark,” he said.
“It was just vacant. Different colored walls. It still had the signs up for where the groceries were located. The office was still there — we converted the office into a bar. The meat department is a kitchen.”
Cannon, who also works as an engineer at Milwaukee Tool, worked with his son, 17-year-old Tennill Jr., in transforming the building’s interior.
“Other than the electrical, me and my son did all the lights,” Cannon said. “We did all the painting. We built the stage. We did the office. Pretty much everything that you see, me and him … We’ve been working on making this a venue for a year.”
“It was long nights of work and dedication,” Tennill Jr. said. “A lot of (time) past curfew and trying to get things done for events on the weekend. When somebody comes down here, they’ll be like, ‘We’ve never seen this before.’”
Cannon is not new to the events business. His first event center, Lakeside Events, is located on Brentwood Avenue. It is a smaller building designed for more intimate, private events, but it provided plenty of lessons when developing The
Cannon Center.
“We learned from our smaller building the good and the bad,” he said. “We’re just able to bring it over here on a larger scale.”
The Cannon Center’s building has newly installed flooring and LED lights along the upper rims of the walls. Several single-person bathrooms have been installed in the back. Former food storage closets have been converted into changing rooms.
On Dec. 30, Cannon and his son were busy setting up for a New Year’s Eve concert, one of about a dozen events The Cannon Center has held over the past year. A couple of visitors dropped by to compliment him on how the building has been transformed.
Cannon also gets help from his wife, Angela; his two daughters, Tanyll and Tamyiah; and a couple of friends in helping prepare events.
One thing Cannon emphasizes is that he is not an absentee owner. When a client rents the facility, Cannon is involved with the setup and the cleanup.
“That’s the other thing that we do different than anybody else — you don’t just rent a building. You’re getting a service,” he said. “We set your tables. You tell us how many tables and chairs you want, and we set them up. If you give us a diagram, we’re going to put them exactly where you want them so when you come in, the building is going to be clean.”
For the New Year’s Eve concert, Cannon said, the promoter’s responsibility was to take care of the performers, while The Cannon Center took care of the rest. “I have people that work here that seat the guests, check the bathrooms throughout the night. We service ice, Cokes, things like that. Similar to what you would get at the (Leflore County) Civic Center, but a little more hands-on.
“Somebody needs something, there’s certain people that can come around that they can talk to. If we don’t have it, we try to get it.”
Cannon said that with all his responsibilities, he doesn’t get much sleep, but he enjoys his work.
“My brain doesn’t stop for some reason,” he said. “I know that’s going to catch up with me in the long run, but I’m always thinking and visualizing fresh ideas. Trying to give the people something they haven’t seen.”
Cannon also finds value in transforming dilapidated property into something useful for the community.
“It’s what I prefer. Every piece of rental property that I’ve bought probably should have been on a list to tear down,” he said. “We’ve taken them and made them places where I would live.”
- This article first appeared in Leflore Illustrated, a quarterly magazine published by The Greenwood Commonwealth.
