Last year, Suzanne Zinsel, an associate broker at Halstead Property, ended a two-and-a-half year search for a suitable Upper West Side pied-à-terre for her clients, Brendan and Kathleen FitzGerald, at the Dakota’s equally impressive neighbor to the north, the San Remo.

The FitzGeralds had been adamant about finding a renovated apartment with a usable terrace; this oddball two-bedroom estate unit, No. 14A, had three terraces, each with a different exposure. Despite the fact that the place required significant renovation and, at $4.4 million, was nearly $2 million more than they had initially intended to spend, they grabbed it.

“We didn’t really know the building before we went to look at the apartment,” Ms. FitzGerald said. “But when you walk into that lobby, with all of the marble and stained glass and mosaic tile, it’s just angelic. There is so much Old World charm, all of it carefully preserved.

“And when we went up to the apartment,” she continued, “the broker had opened the doors to the terraces, so there was this wonderful breeze even though it was August. We went out one terrace, and you could see all the way to the Hudson. Then we walked onto the terrace off the living room and saw people rowing on the lake in Central Park, and that was it, we were done.

“And now it’s a year later and we’re still renovating. I told my husband I don’t ever want to leave the San Remo, and we haven’t even moved in yet.”

The couple had toured and rejected about 35 apartments, including a candidate at the Dakota, before being smitten by No. 14A. “Although it wasn’t the cheapest apartment ever sold in the building,” Ms. Zinsel said, “it was certainly cheaper than anything on the market there right now.”