Villa Park welcomes Sal's Beverage World to old Bakers Square site

VILLA PARK – The owner of Sal's Beverage World says business is good at the family-run company's newly opened fourth location in Villa Park.

Demolition of a former Bakers Square, a building that had remained vacant for more than six years on what is now the site of the newest Sal's Beverage World location, began about a year ago, said Sal Liotta, who, in addition to the Villa Park location, owns three additional stores in Elmhurst, Addison and Rolling Meadows with his son, Vince.

The new 11,700-square-foot store in Villa Park, located at 298 W. Roosevelt Road, opened about two months ago, and a ribbon cutting ceremony was held in late June, Liotta said.

"People come and they have a lot of praise for it," Liotta said, referring to the new store.

The Villa Park location is equipped with 34 cooler doors, a walk-in cooler and features more than 2,000 spirits, 2,000 beers and 5,000 wines.

The massive coolers are a big hit, Liotta said. He said the store sells many specialty beers that are often only found on the shelves of other liquor stores, but at his Villa Park location they have enough room to store them in the coolers.

Eight people are currently employed at the Villa Park location, but Liotta said he plans to hire more as the business grows. Weather, he said, is an important factor for business, and he hopes the remainder of the summer will prove warm and sunny enough to get people out to his store.

Opening a fourth location was not a rash decision, Liotta said. The former Bakers Square site had been on his radar for at least the past eight years, and he said he's been interested in opening a new store somewhere on Roosevelt Road for about a decade.

Overall, Liotta said, he's happy with the new building and the location.

Jan Fiola, Villa Park's economic development director, said Liotta and his company did an excellent job cleaning up what had been a long vacant site.

Liotta said he too has been happy with the partnership he and village staff have forged.

"They've done a lot of things for me which a (village) would not normally do," he said.

Per an incentive agreement with the village, 50 percent of the sales tax generated at the new location will be returned to the business up to a maximum of $269,000, or 10 years, whichever comes first.

But even with the sales tax incentive agreement in place, the village will still receive more tax revenue – both through sales and property taxes – than it would have had the property remained vacant and unused, Fiola said.

When asked what the reception has been from the community, Fiola said "most people are just really excited that the abandoned building, the closed down business, has been rebuilt."

Liotta said he has no doubt that the future will be bright and prosperous for the Villa Park location. With village approval, he said he plans to host wine tastings at the site, and offer special discounts to members of the business' wine club.

With competition from big box stores like Costco, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, Liotta said his secret to staying in business is excellent customer service.

"I think it really is a wonderful thing to go in a liquor store, where you know the manager, the wine guy, the beer guy or the liquor guy, and say, 'I'm looking for this particular thing'" and it's either delivered to you straight away or the salesperson is easily able to offer a similar alternative, Liotta said.

"It makes a big difference," he said.