The Pacha Group CEO on the Club’s New York Opening: ‘I Don’t Think I Could Have Had a Happier Moment’
Categoria: Musica
After a saga at the club once located at Pacha New York site, The Pacha Group CEO Aloki Batra and his team are celebrating the launch and readying another new club opening at the site in November.
Por Billboard | 09/07/2026
It was the evening of June 13, and Aloki Batra had opening night jitters. “My biggest fear was, ‘Oh my god, the Pacha opening turns out to be inauspicious, and the Knicks don’t win in five, and I’ve got 5,000 people on the dance floor upset, but trying to sort of enjoy because they paid for a ticket,’” he says. Related Pacha New York Opens Doors With Rampa, Knicks’ Historic Win & Travis Scott Appearance Naoshi Fujikura of Universal Music Japan on Japan's Unique Superfan Culture & Global Ambitions: Billboard Global Power Players Interview Katsumi Kuroiwa of Avex on the Bruno Mars Publishing Deal & Taking the Company Worldwide: Billboard Global Power Players Interview But earlier in the day Batra — CEO of FIVE Hospitality and The Pacha Group — had seen a rainbow over the New York City skyline and just had a feeling that the opening of his newest property, Pacha New York, would go well. He was right. By 11:30 that night, the 5,000 people on the dancefloor were screaming with joy as they watched the New York Knicks win the NBA Finals on the massive screen hugging the club’s dancefloor. Here, the team’s first championship win in 53 years was soundtracked by New York dance world royalty Danny Tenaglia, who played Frank Sinatra’s “Theme From New York, New York” as the crowd, Batra included, cheered and danced. “I don’t think I could have had a happier moment in my life,” Batra says. One could reasonably consider it a sort of spell-breaking affair, the rainbow at the end of the storm that had hung over the venue’s site over the last year. With the June 13 event, the space at 140 Stewart Avenue in Brooklyn officially became Pacha New York, after more than a decade as the Brooklyn Mirage. The Mirage made national headlines and became a subject of breathless dance world speculation when, after a highly publicized remodel, it failed to open for its 2025 season due to construction permitting issues and, in August of 2025, voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In early 2026, it was announced that the site was being taken over by The Pacha Group, most famous for its namesake Ibiza club that’s been home to parties on the island since 1973. The Dubai-based FIVE Holdings bought The Pacha Group in 2023 in a deal worth $330 million. After this deal closed, Batra and his team at FIVE Holdings first ended the Pacha franchise license held by operators in Barcelona (the license for the Pacha in Munich was extended), opened a Pacha in Dubai (called Playa Pacha) focused on elevating the Ibiza flagship and quietly began eyeing other markets. New York was at the top of the list. Batra and his team were looking for opportunities “Where we control the brand narrative and the brand experience totally, and that includes production, sound, hospitality, operation, security, marketing, etc… The Mirage deal, when it came in the news, represented the right size for us to focus on.” As such, earlier this year, FIVE Holdings e