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…
