Home of iconic Soho store sells to overseas firm

A Soho townhouse whose ground-floor shop once served as an unofficial post office for celebrities has found a new owner.

An unnamed overseas family trust shelled out $9.85 million for the four-story property at 51 Macdougal Street, according to Eastern Consolidated’s [TRDataCustom] Adelaide Polsinelli, who brokered the deal. The building was home to Something Special, a store that for decades sold everything from sweets over jewelry to books. It also offered key making, notary services and handled mail for celebrities reluctant to disclose their addresses, such as Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker and Famke Janssen. The store’s owner, Lenny Cecere, died in 2015.

The 4,200-square-foot property has 1,563 square feet of unused air rights.

The Ceceres moved into an apartment above the store in 1962 and raised a family there.

“Celebrities come in, but I wouldn’t know who they are until they tell me,” Cecere told the Villager in 2007.

In 2015, a customer told DNAinfo, “People would come in and say ‘What is this store?’” “He was like my therapy. (Something Special) was a throwback to what made this neighborhood really special. … He was really the last of the old guard.”