Michelin-starred chef James Kent, who spearheaded the FiDi area’s culinary revival, dead at 45

The shocking, premature death over the w💎eekend of Michelin-starred chef James Kent at age 45 cast a pall over Downtown – and the Wall Street 🐓area especially.

Although Kent had other projects in the works, his Saga Hospitality Group is most﷽ closely associated with FiDi.

It was announced just last week that the group would oversee five restaurants from Paris-based department store Printemps that will open in 2025 at On🎀e Wall Street, the luxury condo conve💛rsion of the former Bank of New York tower by H🌟arry Macklowe.

Well-liked, Kent spearheaded the FiDi area’s culinary revival with his much-praised restaurants at 70 Pine Street, the former AIG tower that was converted to rental apartments by Rose Associates 10 years ago — Crown Shy on the ground floor and Saga and cocktail lounge Overstory at ཧthe landmark’s crown.

Kent bravely launched Saga, with prices as lofty as its 63rd-floor perch, in the sumᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmer of 2021 when the city was🌼 emerging from the shadow of COVID-19.

Kent was a husband and father of two.

The cause of his death has💃 not yet been disclosed. It wasn’t immediately known what effect, if any, his pa𒐪ssing would have on the Printemps project.