Former Partner Accuses Spanish Developer Of Icing Her Out Of 6,000-Unit Miami Project

Demolition just started last week on one of the largest housing projects in Miami history, but it is already the subject of a bitter dispute between partners resulting in a lawsuit filed late Friday in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

Laura Tauber claims Pablo Castro cut her out of the $1.3B HueHub project in Miami’s West Little River neighborhood despite “repeated promises” of equity and management fees as she worked full time for three years without pay to get the project approved.

Tauber is suing for breach of contract and fraud, among five other counts, and seeks damages in excess of $750K. She claims she is owed up to $150M if the project comes to fruition.

“It is extremely unfortunate and disappointing that at the moment our long-envisioned plan is about to become reality, he denies our partnership and has methodically pushed me aside," Tauber told Bisnow in a statement through her attorneys.

Castro brought her in as the local partner on the ambitious HueHub, the largest project in Miami-Dade County to leverage under the Live Local Act, which allows developments to exceed local height restrictions if they make at least 40% of units affordable to those making up to 120% of the area median income.

The 4,032-unit first phase of the development would span six, 35-story towers on nearly 12 acres at 83954 NW 27th Ave. The $880M project is set to include roughly 200K SF of amenities plus coworking space, art galleries, a 2-acre park and mixed-use leisure areas. Tauber said in the suit a planned second phase would add another 2,000 units.

“Tauber and Castro worked together as business partners on the Project since before its inception, daily and in the same office with partner’s desks facing each other,” Tauber’s attorney, K&L Gates Managing Partner Steven Weinstein, told Bisnow in an email. 

When Tauber brought her lawyer to a meeting in mid-February in an attempt to solidify her stake in the project, she was ordered to leave the office she shared with Castro, her email was shut down, and her headshot was removed from the website, according to the suit.

Castro, a native of Spain, moved to South Florida after he sold his Barcelona-based development firm, Grupo Corp., around 2022, The Real Deal reported. 

Tauber founded Bay Harbor Islands-based Taubco with husband Irwin Tauber in the late 1990s. It has owned, developed and operated more than 1M SF of shopping centers, multifamily and mixed-use projects, according to its website.

Its current projects include the 126K SF One Kane boutique office building in Bay Harbour Islands, which started construction in February 2025, and a planned 516-unit apartment project in North Miami. 

Tauber claims that Castro approached her in 2023 to be his local partner on the project. Her responsibilities included being in charge of leading project approvals, arranging and attending meetings with local leaders for local feedback, and community engagement efforts, according to the suit. The project secured its final county approval in August for the first phase.

Tauber also used her local connections to secure a deal to dedicate about 3,000, or 70%, of the units to members of unions representing police officers, firefighters, hospitality workers, teachers and Miami-Dade County employees. 

The developer agreed to keep rents for the fully furnished units in a range of $1,300 for studios, $1,600 for one bedrooms and $1,900 for two bedrooms for 10 years.

“This partnership is proof that private development, labor organizations and institutions can collaborate to create viable housing solutions for those who serve our community,” Castro said in a statement at that time.

He and Tauber posed for photos together at a press conference announcing the deal.

“As Tauber was securing the requisite government approvals and union contracts for Phase I of the Project and the necessary government contracts and approvals for Phase II of the Project, Castro was consistently promising Tauber that she would receive the agreed upon compensation,” Tauber's suit says.

Tauber claims she was appointed president of the development company, according to the suit, which also names Castro-affiliated companies The HueHub LLC and Digital Housing Platform LLC as defendants.

She said Castro verbally committed to granting her 50% of the income from property management, a 1% asset management fee, 10% of the developer fee and $50K per month for her three years of work.

None of these commitments were in writing, however.

“She frankly trusted Castro and took him at his word based on his repeated promises to her, as well as statements to the world directly and via the PR firm he engaged, that Tauber was the Project’s ‘local developer’ and his ‘partner,’” Weinstein said in an email when asked why Tauber had never signed a written agreement.

“It is now obvious that Castro intentionally and systematically delayed memorializing an agreement until he thought he no longer needed Tauber to bring the Project to fruition," he added.

Once the requisite approvals from Miami-Dade and retail leases for the first phase of the project were obtained, Castro allegedly backed out of his promises.

This included eliminating the equity designated as Class D shares without Tauber’s consent, which was verbally agreed as her economic stake in the project, she claimed. Castro also allegedly avoided conversations about finalizing her receipt of the shares while the pair tried to secure construction financing, according to the suit.

Castro then began to deny that she was a partner in HueHub at all and any equity she may have been entitled to in the project. The suit stated that he offered $50K a month going forward but nothing for the last three years of past work.

HueHub and Castro didn't respond to a request for comment.