Cyrus Coleman needed a studio space where he could show work and create art in Portland. But he was striking out.
“I wasn’t able to find anything,” Coleman, 32, said, standing on the stairs in the Horizon Enterprise Building in Old Town in late December. “I asked Wale if he wanted to go in on something together and we still weren’t able to find a decent space.”
Adewale Agboola, 34, who goes by Wale, nodded.
“It’s kind of how we snowballed into this,” Coleman said.
“This” is the Horizon Enterprise Building, a historic $2.1 million 20,000 square feet building, built in 1905, which the two men now own.
The plans for the Horizon Enterprise Building include gallery space, a speakeasy, a maker studio as well as more traditional art studios and even a small apartment where visiting artists can stay upstairs.
Both men are Black and hope their building “will become the epicenter and incubator for BIPOC creativity in Portland.”
Coleman is an NBA uniform graphic designer for Nike, who was born and raised in Austin. He’s lived in Portland for about six years.
He met Agboola, a photographer born in Nigeria who owns the company The Goodhomies, in a way that sounds like a screenplay – Coleman was sent out to Minneapolis to work on the Timberwolves’ Prince jersey. When the jersey was launched in 2018, Coleman went back out to do media interviews.
“So I’m flying home after this amazing trip and one of his friends is on the plane with me and recognizes me,” Coleman said, nodding toward Agboola.
That friend had worked with the Timberwolves as well and was also a photographer. Coleman and the man hit it off and stayed in touch. Later, Coleman went back to Minnesota to visit and attend a music festival with the new friend.
“Wale was shooting that festival so we went to Wale’s to hang out before going to the festival,” Coleman said. “And that’s how we met.”
In 2020, during the week no one in Portland could breathe outside, Agboola moved to Portland.
“I literally drove through fire to get here,” he said.
The seeds for what would be the Horizon Building were planted almost immediately upon arrival.
“Moving to Portland,” Agboola said, “a lot of my friends were like, ‘Man, it’s just a lot of white people. What are you doing?’
“It was really hard to find people that look exactly like us or like me. I remember the first black person I saw at a coffee shop. I was like, ‘Hi!’ I’m still friends with Greg because Greg was like the first black person I met.”
What Agboola and Coleman want to create is a space where they aren’t always the only person of color, overlooked, overshadowed or viewed with suspicion.
“Even yesterday,” Agboola said, “we were sitting down somewhere and we were asked, ‘Are you OK?’ like 20 times within the span of an hour. It was ridiculous.”
“So where can we sit in a place where it doesn’t have to feel that uncomfortable,” he said, “where people can just be, create, move around, and also can come have fun and just hang out? Learn about wine, learn about art, learn about culture?”
The answer, the friends hope, is the Horizon Building.
During a walkthrough of the space, which used to house an architectural firm, Coleman and Agboola pointed out where the gallery and wine bar would be on the first floor. In the basement, they described where a speakeasy and jazz club would be located.
“I have some musical history in my family,” Coleman said. “My dad was a BB King’s drummer for like 30-plus years. My grandpa was also an R&B singer and disc jockey and actor. He’s on the Apollo Hall of Fame.”
He’s excited about the prospect of bringing a Black-owned jazz club back to Portland and also sharing that part of his personal history.
The basement and first floor will be open to the public. The second and third floors will be membership or rental based.
“We’ll have a maker space on the second floor,” Coleman said, which will “have equipment that you would need to like, make whatever it is.”
Though it is theirs now, the process of purchasing a building wasn’t easy.
Initially, the two men were hoping to rent a space and were shopping their ideas around, trying to get building owners to lower their prices.
“We were trying to convince them we’re good for it,” Agboola said. “And this building, your building, is going to be great. People are going to come in and out, you’re going to get this traffic. But no one budged.”
“There was a lot of, ‘Oh yeah, that’d be great. We’d love to support you however we can that’s not financial,’” Coleman added.
Around that time, through friends Ian Williams who owns Deadstock Coffee and Amir Morgan who owns Barnes & Morgan, they met Jessie Burke, the chair of the Old Town Community Association and owner of The Society Hotel.
Burke said there was plenty of space available to rent, “‘or,’” Coleman said she told them, “‘if you want to create generational wealth, there’s a building for sale over here.’”
“We’re like, ‘I mean, yeah, we would love to do that, but we’re broke,’” Coleman said.
But instead of that being the end of the story, it was the beginning.
Coleman and Agboola worked with Equity Development Lab, a nonprofit started by Burke and her husband, Jonathan Cohen, to help people of color purchase property and start businesses.
“They had a wealth of knowledge to just share with us, to show us how to do it,” Coleman said. “They believed in our vision and our passion and were like, ‘If y’all really want to do this, it’s going to be hard work, but you can pull it off. It’s a great idea.’”
Cohen and Burke helped Coleman and Agboola with every step of the process, connecting them with bankers and lenders, helping them create a business plan and raise money for the purchase. And they continue to help, as the men work to raise the funds they need to renovate the building.
“We pulled it off,” Coleman said. “We bought the building.”
Now that they own the building, they are finding a lot of people want to help make the dream space a reality. “Everyone just wants to see it come to life. Everyone wants to help as best as they can,” Agboola said.
Agboola and Coleman are enthusiastic about what the opening of the building will bring to Old Town, to artists and to kids who might not get many chances to see themselves in creative people in Portland.
“I think another thing that’s really important to us is that this isn’t half-assed,” Coleman said. “It’s all the way to the nines. Excellence. Like, this is achievable. This is what we deserve, this is what we can reach.”
“And,” he added, “it’s done well. It’s not just a space that’s kind of a rundown space where y’all can hang out and do your thing. This is on par with any other excellent creative agency or space. It’s something that we want to have be the pinnacle experience for underserved communities. That they can see, OK, this is like how it should be done. We shouldn’t expect less.”
All they need now is more money. Agboola and Coleman are trying to raise $1.6 million to renovate the building and open its doors. On Tuesday, they will participate in PitchBlack, a startup competition for Black entrepreneurs.
They hope to open to the public five to six months after those renovations begin.
If anyone can do it, it’s them. It’s not hard to see what they see as you walk through the building and they have, after the struggle to find a place to rent, finally found people in Portland who want to help bring the space to life.
“Everyone that we’ve been on this train with has been super about it, super helpful,” Coleman said. “I think that’s the unique thing about Portland, too. I don’t feel like we could do this in any other city. Not LA or New York or even Texas, like a big marketplace like that. The community is, a lot closer-knit here and people are a lot more willing to like extend all the branches and help, for no reason at all other than like it’s the right thing to do.”
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker
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