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Big Ass Fans founder buys Lance Armstrong’s Austin home

Carey Smith, founder of Big Ass Fans has purchased Lance Armstrong's 8,185-square-foot home on Windsor Road for an undisclosed price. Smith and his wife, Nancy, plan to remodel the house and make Austin their primary residence.
Credit: Austin American-Statesman

(Austin American-Statesman) Carey Smith, founder of Big Ass Fans manufacturing company, is the new owner of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Windsor Road home, which Smith and his wife, Nancy, will remodel and make their primary residence.
The purchase price of the house, which Armstrong bought in 2013 in the Old Enfield neighborhood, was not disclosed.

Most recently, the 8,185-square-foot house at 1706 Windsor Road had been on the market for 74 days, listed at $7.5 million, said Cari Clark, a real estate agent with Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty who represented the Smiths in the purchase.

The Travis Central Appraisal District has the house valued at $2.85 million.

PHOTOS: Check out Austin estate just sold by Lance Armstrong

Armstrong previously had put the house up for sale in early 2016, asking $8.25 million. That price was reduced a year later to $7.9 million.

Built in 1924, the house was owned by Ben Barnes, a former Texas lieutenant governor, before Armstrong bought it. Armstrong was a seven-time winner of the Tour de France, cycling’s most prestigious race. He was stripped of those titles after a doping scandal, and admitted in a 2013 television interview that he used banned substances.

After a major renovation of the house, Carey Smith said, he and his wife will move in within about a year. He said they are currently renting a condo in the Seaholm Residences in downtown Austin, and are leasing the house to Armstrong for another month or so.

Clark said she enjoys representing entrepreneurs who are moving to Austin.

“They continue to fuel our economy with creativity and ingenuity and are a key reason that the Austin real estate market stays strong,” Clark said.

When Gottesman Residential Real Estate had the house listed in 2016, its website said that the recently remodeled estate, located on .41 gated acres, “is a fantastic blend of original charm, modern amenities and timeless design. The home has been meticulously executed with details that include plaster walls, arched doorways, walls of windows and hardwood floors.”

The house has five bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, one half-bath and seven living areas. The master suite has a sitting area and his and hers bathrooms with closets. The house also has a climate-controlled wine cellar with room for dining.

In addition to the main house, there is a pool house with a full bathroom and kitchenette.

Carey Smith sold Lexington, Kentucky-based Big Ass Fans for $500 million in December, with about $50 million of the proceeds going to more than 100 employees with stock appreciation rights.

Carey Smith said he is basing his next venture — an incubator for new ideas and businesses — in Austin. The incubator includes seven former Big Ass Fans employees, Smith said.

Smith has dubbed the incubator “The Kitchen” because “they cook up ideas and new ventures,” he said

The group is working with him to launch businesses of their own choosing, be it raising indoor shrimp, making and distributing saké or constructing modular housing.

“They’re looking for business opportunities, whatever they’re interested in,” he said.

Smith said the employees, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s, all did an “exceptionally good job” running various divisions and departments at his fan company.

Smith said he offered them the opportunity to pick the location of the new company’s headquarters. They picked Austin because of its entrepreneurial culture and will be relocating from Lexington over the next few months, Carey Smith said.

Other cities considered were Chicago, Dallas and Palo Alto, Calif., the latter of where Smith said he “would have loved to have gone, but we couldn’t afford that.” He said Austin won out “hands down.”

“I don’t think there’s any place like Austin,” he said.

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