LIMELIGHT’S back in the spotlight.The church-turned-club reopened last night with a new name (Estate), new management (farewell, Peter Gatien) and a new look.

“There’s nothing left of the old interior space,” boasts executive director David Sarner of the estimated $8 million renovation.

“The only thing that is the same about the Limelight is the address.”

The club on Sixth Avenue and 20th Street has long been a magnet of media attention involving drugs and deaths.

Most notably, flamboyant Limelight promoter Michael Alig was convicted in 1996 for the grisly murder and dismemberment of drug dealer Angel Melendez.

The famed disco opened in 1983, and closed last August after bankrupt owner Gatien – facing a decade’s worth of drug dealing and tax evasion charges – sold it to party promoter John Blair for a reported $3 million.

And while the new name Blair and his partners came up with sounds more funereal than fabulous, Sarner insists Estate sounds “grand.”

“It evokes an Old World feel to it, even though the inside is high-tech and modern,” Sarner says. “When you walk in, you feel like you’ve arrived.”

Especially if you’re in one of the three mirrored skyboxes above the main dance floor.

Complete with private security guard, butler, bathroom, climate control and privacy lighting (which lets you see out while outsiders can’t see in), each skybox will rent for $2,500 a night, alcohol not included.

The coed bathroom is the color of a Creamsicle, and blinding neon lights shoot up from the walkways as you roam from room to room.

As for the bad old days, Sarner insists things will be different, thanks to security – and cameras – everywhere.

“We have a book of known drug offenders with pictures in it that we show to our security staff so they will keep these people out,” he says.