BEVERLY — The Vittori-Rocci Post has been sold for $2.2 million, another step in the plan to turn the veterans club into a rug store.
The club sold the building on Feb. 1 to 143 Brimbal Avenue LLC, according to Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds records. The LLC was formed by Landry & Arcari Rugs and Carpeting, which plans to move its longtime Salem operations to the Beverly site.
Vittori-Rocci Post members agreed to sell the building two years ago due to financial problems brought on by the pandemic. As part of the deal, the club can continue to operate in the basement of the building for up to two years following the sale while it searches for a new home.
The plan to redevelop the building, however, is still being challenged in court by Ernest Santin, who owns the building next door. It is unclear when Landry & Arcari will start moving in. Neither Landry & Arcari owner Julie Cook Arcari nor Thomas Roccio, director of the Vittori-Rocci Post #56 Building Association, could be reached for comment.
Landry & Arcari, a family-owned business based in Salem that began in 1938, plans to convert the building into its new headquarters with a retail showroom and rug fabrication and storage operations. The plan includes adding a third story to the building.
The Vittori-Rocci Post opened in 1956 as an Italian American War Veterans Post. It has a function room on the top floor and a bar in the basement. Club officials have said they lost their main source of revenue when they could not rent out their hall for functions because of the pandemic. They said the club, which had about 160 veteran members and 300 social members, was not in danger of disbanding but needed to find a less expensive home.
The planned sale of the building drew objections from the family of Joseph Vittori, a Korean War hero and Medal of Honor recipient from Beverly whose parents donated the land on Brimbal Aveune to build the veterans club in honor of their son. Lisa Treem, Vittori’s niece, has called the sale a “disgrace and a slap in the face to our family.”
Santin, who owns the commercial building next door at 133 Brimbal Ave., appealed the Beverly Zoning Board’s granting of a special permit for the Landry & Arcari project, which includes adding a third floor. That appeal to the Land Court was dismissed in December, but Santin has filed a notice of intent to appeal the court’s decision with the Massachusetts Court of Appeals.