The financial prospectus, used to finance the project by the public sale of $10 shares, described the new four-structure facility as a “Palace of Fun” - sitting atop an illuminated pier stretching nearly a third of a mile out into Lake Ontario.

The proposed pier would include a 30,000 sq ft (2,800 m2) ballroom that would accommodate 3,000 couples, a roller rink (converted for ice skating in the winter months), 1,400-seat theatre, an outdoor Band Pavilion seating 1,500, and several restaurants and souvenir stores.

Only the first phase of the redesigned amusement pier, 90 metres long, was opened on June 10, 1941 and it became popular as a major dance hall of the big band era during World War II and the postwar years.

Hollywood celebrity Bob Hope, who was in town promoting his latest film, officially opened the new Palace Pier by doing a few laps around the roller rink in front of fans.

As big band music faded away, boxing and wrestling matches, religious revival meetings, country and western concerts, and high school proms became the major events to frequent the Palace Pier.

A 1994 Etobicoke Historical Board plaque on the Waterfront Trail just west of the mouth of the Humber River is attached to what is left of the original Palace Pier dance hall.