The conversion maintained many of the industrial steam plant structures such as furnaces, boilers, catwalks and pipe networks, which can still be seen and explored by visitors and patrons.

The Steam Plant's pair of 225-foot-tall stacks[2] have been a unique and iconic aspect of the city's skyline for more than a century, and are illuminated from their base at night.

The Steam Plant was one of the last large construction projects reflecting the entrepreneurial spirit of Spokane's boom town days.

By the end of 1915, the Merchants Central Heating Company purchased two lots adjacent to a Northern Pacific railroad from millionaire August Paulsen.

A temporary plant was constructed on the site, which provided heat to 38 adjacent buildings including The Davenport Hotel.

The company was put into receivership and ultimately purchased in 1919 by Washington Water Power,[6] which through its successors owned the Steam Plant until 2021.

The building then sat vacant for about a decade[6] until Avista, Washington Water Power's successor, hired local developer Ron Wells to renovate the facility into a mix of restaurant, retail and office space in the late-1990s.

[7] Wells' transformation of the formerly industrial structure into a retail and commercial space known as Steam Plant Square, included the adjacent and historic Seehorn-Lang Building.

Ron Wells, who oversaw the redevelopment of the Steam Plant in the late-1990s, told The Spokesman-Review in 2017, "It's a huge gift to Spokane.

The Steam Plant has hosted a handful of music festivals over the years,[8][9] has been home to numerous locally owned shops,[10] and become a tourist attraction for its unique mix of industrial history and contemporary commerce.

Men's Journal named the Steam Plant one of the 10 coolest places to drink craft beer in the United States.

The north side of the building connects to the adjacent railroad tracks on a raised right of way, which allowed for coal to be unloaded from trains directly into the plant.

[12] The north façade faces an elevated railroad right of way and served as the connection between the plant and the trains delivering coal.