Avant Gardner and Brooklyn Mirage faced no shortage of complaints and challenges (most notably the demolition of its attempted expansion that shut down the venue for good last year), and the story appears to be similar for its locational successor, Pacha.
Earlier this month, Pacha—from the Pacha Group nightlife and hospitality company most famous for Pacha nightclub in Ibiza—announced its opening weekend on June 20, though it hasn’t been without bumps in the road.
This marks Pacha’s return to New York City following its original location in Hell’s Kitchen from 2005 to 2016. Except this time, it’s in East Williamsburg.
Well, it will be in East Williamsburg. At present, the lot is still bare bones (some might even say no bones) and plenty of people doubt that the lot will be transformed into a functional club by June (sound familiar?). The website at least offers a rendering of a “backstage dancing VIP” section to give some suggestion of what the space will look like. Per the Department of Buildings website, the group has filed multiple permits for sound wall, AV, bathroom, and other structural work.
But those aren’t the only permits they need. Much like their dance floors of yore, Pacha had last week’s Community Board 1 meeting packed—with plenty of naysayers—during their SLA hearing for a liquor license. Ahead of the meeting, flyers were posted throughout Bushwick as well as online urging those in opposition to show up and make their voices heard, particularly regarding concerns about sound bleed, litter and public intoxication, safety, and the track record of the space’s former nightclub tenant, to name a few.
In response, FIVE Holdings (the company that owns Pacha Group) Chairman and CEO Kabir Mulchandani cited that Pacha’s capacity would be nearly 2,000 less than Brooklyn Mirage and a 23-foot acoustic wall will help mitigate sound spreading to nearby areas. Other plans include 21+ entry, shuttle buses, improved 4G and 5G cell service, and cleanup crews… plus capacity tracking and security scanning powered by AI (first the robots came for the bouncers…).
If not approved for a liquor license, they will attempt to “transfer” and operate under Avant Gardner’s existing one.
But that’s not all people are upset about. Those who would be happy to go to a newly opened Pacha have also had strong reactions to recently released ticket prices. London-based DJ and producer Michael Bibi is set to perform the official opening night, and tickets started at $150—they have since sold out, and now only the aforementioned backstage dancing VIP tix remain for a steep $672. The cheapest available tickets start at $50 for duo Masters at Work and Belgian DJ Lost Frequencies.
Maybe Charli XCX was right, maybe the dance floor really is dead (or this particular one is just cursed).