The Woodlands banquet hall on the grounds of the Town...

The Woodlands banquet hall on the grounds of the Town of Oyster Bay Golf Course in Woodbury is seen on July 1, 2015. Credit: Howard Schnapp

Some of the investors who have been operating the concessions at Oyster Bay’s Woodlands catering hall and Tobay Beach want to continue even after being terminated by the town, their lawyer said Tuesday.

On Monday, the town notified the investors that their concessions agreements were being terminated due to defaults on payments in 2015. On Tuesday, investor Ravinder Chopra and his attorney Ed Troy of Greenlawn met with Jonathan Sinnreich of Sinnreich Kosakoff & Messina LLP, Oyster Bay’s outside attorney, and town parks commissioner Frank Nocerino.

“The town issued letters allegedly terminating the concession agreements,” Troy said outside Sinnreich’s Central Islip office after the meeting.

The purpose of the roughly 30-minute meeting was “for us to present facts that mitigate against them doing so,” Troy said.

He said his clients still wanted to be involved with the operations as concessionaires though “not as presently constituted” but declined to get into further details.

The companies running the concessions — S.R.B. Convention & Catering Corp. and SRB Catering Inc. — were taken over from indicted restaurateur Harendra Singh by a group of investors known to include Ravinder Chopra, Manoj Narang and Jagadeesan Poola. Singh faces a January trial on charges including bribery and tax fraud.

The details of the takeover are unclear and Troy advised Chopra not to answer questions from a reporter about whether Singh’s wife Ruby still had a stake in the companies.

Asked whether the concessionaire was in arrears in its payments to the town, Troy said, “that’s an issue that’s in dispute.”

Sinnreich said in an interview that his role was limited to preparing requests for proposals for the concessions and referred questions about the town’s negotiations with the investors — which have been ongoing all year — to attorney Jonathan Pickhardt of Manhattan-based Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

Pickhardt did not respond to requests for comment.

The town has engaged Scotto Brothers Inc., a Woodbury-based catering and restaurant company, to run three events already booked for the next few days at the concessions, Sinnreich said.

Sinnreich said he sent an emergency request for proposals on Monday to “eight or nine” catering companies to take over the Woodlands through the end of 2016, where “there obviously is a need because there are events scheduled every week.”

The parks department plans to hold a meeting on Friday with interested companies, and proposals are due on Monday. The town board is expected to consider the proposals at its Tuesday meeting.

The town is not issuing an emergency proposal for Tobay Beach because the season is over, Sinnreich said. The town plans to issue formal requests for proposals for long-term concessions agreements at the facilities at a later date, Sinnreich said.

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