A landmark on Toronto’s western waterfront since 1978, The Palace Pier pairs classic lakefront elegance with a rare depth of services, from a full-service spa to on-site dining.
A setting like no other
Where the Humber River meets the lake
The Palace Pier is set in Humber Bay Shores, where the Humber River meets Lake Ontario, in the city’s west end. The lake is part of the everyday view; the shoreline and the waterfront trail are moments from the front door. It is a location that feels quietly apart from the city while remaining part of it.
The residence is an elegant, friendly and secure environment. A gated, attended entrance welcomes residents and their guests day and night, and a full-service spa, on-site dining at Veloute, and a remarkable number of services and amenities are tucked within the grounds.
The name
A landmark with a storied name
The Palace Pier takes its name from one of Toronto’s grandest lost landmarks. In 1927, the Provincial Improvement Corporation set out to build a great pleasure pier on the west bank of the Humber River, inspired by the seaside piers of Britain and designed by the firm Craig and Madill in the Moroccan style. Plans called for a ballroom for 3,000 dancing couples, a palace of fun, a theatre and a steamship landing reaching a third of a mile out over Lake Ontario. The Depression had other ideas. Only the great ballroom was ever built; its cornerstone was laid in 1931, and for a decade it stood empty while wags called it “that white elephant at the mouth of the Humber.”
In June 1941 the pier finally opened as a roller rink, with Bob Hope headlining a wartime charity fundraiser. Through the war years it became the Queensway Ballroom, one of the city’s great big-band stages. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, the Dorsey brothers, Harry James and Stan Kenton all played beneath its arches, and in the 1950s the marquee turned to Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. On January 7, 1963, an arsonist’s fire destroyed the pier in flames said to be visible across the lake. The site stood empty for the next decade.
In 1978 the name rose again, this time in glass and steel. Developer Max Tanenbaum, a businessman in the steel and construction industries who also built the Sutton Place Hotel, completed the 47-storey Palace Pier, among the first luxury condominium residences on Toronto’s waterfront. Its neighbour Palace Place followed in 1991, and today a monument built from one of the original pier’s concrete footings stands beside the Humber footbridge, placed there by residents in memory of the pier that gave this address its name.
Soaring 47 storeys above the shoreline, the tower holds 433 suites and remains a striking landmark on the shores of Lake Ontario, as majestic as the views that surround it.
Recognized excellence
Honoured by the community
The Palace Pier was named 2020 Condo of the Year by the CCI Toronto and Area Chapter, and received the chapter’s 2018 Condo Newsletter of the Year award in recognition of its community communication.