A love story like Ana and Lucas Altman’s could only happen in New York City.
The pair didn’t meet through rounds of speed dating, an awkward blind date or a lucky swipe on the apps. For the Altmans, Cupid came in the form of their doorman.
Ana and Lucas met in 2011 as neighbors at 11 W. 69th St., a prewar co-op along a tree-lined block off Central Park West.
Lucas, a television director for Major League Baseball, had just bought his first apartment, unit 1B.
Ana and Lucas credit their doorman, Liridon “Mike” Dautaj, with setting them up. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
The pair met in 2011 when they lived across the hall from each other. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
Ana was one of the first residents Lucas and his black lab, Sam, met. Ana, who purchased her apartment in 2009 after graduating from NYU, lived directly across the hall in unit 1D — with her then-boyfriend. Ana adopted her own dog, Nashville, soon after Lucas arrived.
The neighbors quickly struck up a friendship throughout mailroom run-ins and crossing paths during off-leash hours in Central Park.
“He was so friendly,” Ana, now 38, told The Post. “You don’t always come across people being so friendly in New York City. It kind of fits with the character of the building, it feels like a community.”
Lucas, now 54, tried not to dwell on how much he enjoyed Ana’s company, given that she was his neighbor and totally off the market.
“I tried to force it out of my mind, because I knew that was just dicey,” he told The Post.
Dautaj has been a strong presence in their lives ever since. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
Little did Ana and Lucas know, their keen-eyed doorman was taking note. Liridon Dautaj, now 52, moved to New York City from Albania in the 1990s. A friendly man of few words, he has manned the door and cared for the residents at 11 W. 69th St. for 26 years now. He knows the comings and goings of all 40 units, and their occupants all know him by his nickname, Mike.
Lucas recalled the summer day in 2014 when he returned home from a trip and greeted Dautaj in the lobby.
“I came back … and Mike said, kind of slyly, ‘It’s too bad you were gone this weekend,’” Lucas recalled. “And I was like, ‘Well, why? What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘Well, you know, I think someone was hoping you were here.’”
That’s how Lucas learned Ana’s boyfriend had recently moved out — and that she had asked Mike if Lucas was around.
“Mike has always been there. He’s the eyes of the building, right? He watches everything behind the scenes,” Ana said.
Dautaj said he had never played Cupid with his residents before, but this was a special case.
Dautaj has worked in the building for more than two decades, and attended three residents’ weddings. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
A shot from Ana and Lucas’s engagement photoshoot in 2015. The Altmans
“I’d see them all the time, they’d walk around and go to the park with the dogs and stuff, and being very happy,” he said.
“I remember talking that night with Lucas, and I’m like, ‘Lucas, you’ve got to make a move, because you never know what’s going to happen later.’” he said.
The doorman’s well-timed intel gave Lucas the courage to ask Ana out.
“Meanwhile, Mike’s watching it all happening,” Ana said. She’s pretty sure both she and Lucas were updating their in-house matchmaker on how the dates were going.
Things tend to progress quickly when you live across from your romantic partner. It got serious by the time fall came around, just as Ana began her doctorate degree in clinical psychology. She describes living “together but separately,” between their two homes.
Ana and Lucas were engaged by the end of the next summer, and married one year later in Vermont. Dautaj and his wife, Shqipe Dautaj, were in attendance.
Dautaj and his wife, Shqipe Dautaj (right), attended the pair’s Vermont wedding in 2016.
The guest of honor got a shoutout during the wedding speeches.
“I’ve been to three [residents’] weddings, but this one was one of my best ones,” Liridon said. “It was so beautiful,” adding, “this one really touched my heart.”
Dautaj even got a shoutout during their wedding speeches, and was gifted a framed photo from their wedding for Christmas.
The couple’s time at 11 West 69th didn’t end after the wedding bells rang, however. Ana moved across the hall to Lucas’s one-bedroom apartment after their marriage, and Ana’s unit was rented out. They welcomed their first daughter there in 2018, but their little family eventually outgrew his bachelor pad.
Ana said they shopped around on West 68th and 70th streets, but nothing felt like home. Their ground-floor apartment had a kind of “open door policy,” she said, with neighbors often stopping by to say hi and their daughter playing ball with Dautaj in the lobby.
The solution arrived in 2021 when a spacious two-bedroom apartment opened up on the building’s sixth floor. The family of three jumped at the opportunity, and became a family for four when their second daughter arrived in 2024.
Lucas and Ana’s current home on the sixth floor allowed their family to grow. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
Dautaj is close with the entire Altman clan, including the couple’s two daughters.
“It’s been so lovely because we got to maintain the community and keep the consistency,” Ana said. “It’s such a comfortable place to live. It doesn’t feel like an apartment living in New York City. It feels like a home.”
The pair sold Lucas’s first apartment, and Ana’s former unit soon followed. The open door policy remained.
“We joke that we should have screened doors on these apartments,” Lucas said.
Their dog Nash regularly visits their neighbor’s apartment for evening naps, and Dautaj always says hello when his work brings him to the sixth floor.
“Our youngest will always says ‘Hi Mike!’” Ana said.
The family is saying goodbye to West 69th Street after 15 years. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
A listing photo displays a drawing of the pair with their dogs, Sam and Nash, meeting in the park. Courtesy Brown Harris Stevens
Dautaj recalled enjoying dinners, drinks and even his own birthday celebration at the Altmans’ home.
But after 15 years — including a wedding, two kids and three apartments — the Altman family is saying goodbye to 11 W. 69th St.
“If we could afford a three-bedroom, and if one existed in the building, we might upgrade again, but that doesn’t exist,” Lucas said.
They’re planning a move to the New Jersey suburbs to find more room to grow, live closer to Lucas’s office and their eldest daughter’s ice hockey team.
The longtime friends plan to remain close. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
The Altmans’ two-bedroom, two-bathroom home is presently on the market for $2.19 million. The listing, repped by Louise Phillips Forbes of Brown Harris Stevens, boasts bespoke millwork throughout, Calacatta Gold marble countertops in the kitchen and a large primary bedroom with an ensuite bath.
One listing photo displays a drawing of the pair with their dogs, Sam and Nash, meeting in the park.
Saying goodbye to 11 W. 69th St. also means goodbye to Dautaj. Former residents often keep in touch with him, and the Altmans plan to do the same.
“It’s very hard, I’m very close to people here,” Mike said. “Anna, Lucas, the kids and Nashville, they are my favorite.”