Oyster Bay ends concessions agreements at two town facilities

HICKSVILLE, NY (TIP): A Newsday report says that Oyster Bay has terminated its concessions agreements at the town-owned Woodlands catering hall and Tobay Beach with companies formerly owned by indicted restaurateur Harendra Singh, a Town spokeswoman said Tuesday, September 20.

“We were trying to work out or negotiate a termination agreement throughout the summer,” spokeswoman Marta Kane said. “That was unsuccessful.”

Meanwhile, Newsday reported that Former Harendra Singh concessions investors want to remain. 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 afterthe 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. Harendra Singh faces a January trial on chargesincluding 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.

Be the first to comment

The Indian Panorama - Best Indian American Newspaper in New York & Dallas - Comments