Fan home with a personality

Seven-foot, four-inch door frames to accommodate basketball players are only one of the amenities that helped sell the home of former VCU head basketball coach Shaka Smart in Richmond’s popular Fan district. 

The 4,895-square foot, brick Colonial Revival home at 2701 Park Ave. fetched $1.26 million earlier this year, a little below the listed price of $1.4 million.

“It’s a spectacular house,” says Bill Gallasch, who along with his wife, Ceci Amrhein-Gallasch, served as the listing agents for the sale. The couple works for Joyner Fine Properties in Richmond.

“All of the door frames were raised — they’re normally six-foot, eight-inches — to accommodate the basketball players that would hang out there,” says Gallasch.  The affect was dramatic. “It opened things up, made the ceilings seem taller.”

Maya and Shaka Smart renovated the 98-year home before he became head basketball coach at the University of Texas last year. “It met all of today’s standards,” says Gallasch. 

The couple knocked out a wall to open up the kitchen and converted a double-car garage into a first-floor laundry and powder room. 

Upgrading the home’s Wi-Fi capability was another project. “They could do everything from their phone,” says Gallasch. “One of the neat things they had was a TV in the wall, and when it was turned off it became a mirror. That stayed with the house.” 

The three-story brick home, with a slate roof, has six bedrooms, four baths, and a basement with a recreation room and wine cellar.  Gallasch says one of the Smarts’ favorite places to relax was the back of the house, which sports two Charleston-style open porches with awnings.  

The new owners are a couple from Hanover County who moved to the Fan to enjoy the amenities of city living and to be close to their grandchildren.