Cannon Motor Company has bought out the owners of Vicksburg’s Honda dealership and proposes to merge it and the company’s Toyota dealership into a supersite in 2015 on North Frontage Road, where a connector road is planned.

“We are proud to add a second dealership in the Vicksburg area,” CEO Michael Joe Cannon said. “The people of Vicksburg and Warren County have responded well to Cannon Toyota. We’re excited about having another dealership in Warren County and adding a very popular brand to our family of dealerships.”

Completed Dec. 1, the acquisition confirmed Cannon’s second buy into the Vicksburg auto market in the past year. In 2013, Cannon purchased the former Vicksburg Toyota dealership on East Clay Street.

Cannon plans to merge the two dealerships into one property with two “state-of-the-art” structures, according to a news release.

“We plan to have a groundbreaking soon and hope to be in our new locations sometime in 2015,” Cannon said. “In the meantime, we’ll be doing business in our present locations, 4105 East Clay Street and 2939 North Frontage Road, and look forward to offering you the sales and service you’ve come to expect from the Cannon family of dealerships.”

Cannon will hold on to its East Clay Street location for the time being, Cannon said, and didn’t rule out using the location as a lot for pre-owned vehicles. The company rents the building that houses Excel Honda, Cannon said. The two locations were built within a few years of each other, the Toyota location in 1986 and the Honda site in 1989, according to property records.

Hondas had been sold in Vicksburg at 2939 North Frontage Road under the Excel brand name since 2011. A Bossier City, La.-based group, 3 Rednecks LLC, purchased the dealership in 2013 and had planned to move onto a three-acre section of a 22-acre tract where Battlefield Mall once stood. The rest of the land is owned by the parent company for Blackburn Motors.

Moving down the street also means moving out from behind a hill on which North Frontage Road runs, thus improving visibility from Interstate 20.

“It’ll be great, because we’ll move from under the hill where you can’t see us,” eight-year general manager George Jones said. “We’ll be interacting with the customers along this way a lot better.”

Access to the new lot is a concern for the company’s Toyota customers, general manager Billy Crozier said.

“It’ll be easier for customers to get in and out of the service department with the way they’re building these things now,” Crozier said.

In recent months, the city has begun talks with private landowners to purchase rights of way along the path of a proposed road to connect North Frontage to Wisconsin Avenue, between RiverHills Bank and Cannon Honda’s eventual location. Funds to build the road are coming from a $1.31 million loan from the Mississippi Development Authority, to be paid back over 20 years.

Officials indicated the company’s visibility from its television ads would enhance both automakers’ brands in Vicksburg.

“When you see the Cannon name, you know the dealership will be family-oriented and satisfaction driven,” Jones said.