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

The shocking, premature death over the weekend 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 One Wall Street, the luxury condo conversion of the former Bank of New York tower by Harry 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 the landmark’s crown.

Kent bravely launched Saga, with prices as lofty as its 63rd-floor perch, in the summer 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 passing would have on the Printemps project.