Pablo Castro Denies Laura Tauber Was Ever His Partner On 4,000-Unit HueHub Project
The Spanish developer leading one of Miami’s largest planned housing projects has responded to allegations from a former partner who claims she was never paid for three years of work and exiled from the development.
He claims she was never a partner at all.
In an April 30 filing in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Pablo Castro responded to Laura Tauber's March lawsuit, which revolved around her claims that she was promised equity and compensation for her part in gaining approvals and landing agreements with labor unions for the HueHub project.
Instead, Castro claims Tauber sought to participate in the project to learn about workforce housing development and was allowed to participate in meetings around the development.
Even though Tauber was called a partner in marketing materials and during public meetings discussing the development, Castro claimed she was only represented as a “partner” under the interpretation that she would raise and invest equity and share project costs, which he claims she never did.
“[Tauber] knowingly accepted the opportunity to participate without compensation with the expectation that any future benefit would arise from her anticipated equity participation through investment or the introduction of investors (which never materialized) thereby waiving any right to later seek recovery,” according to the response, filed by Bilzin Sumberg attorneys Mitchell Widom and Raquel Fernandez.
Widom and Fernandez are Castro's third group of defense attorneys since the original case was filed two months ago. They didn't respond to a request for comment.
Representatives for The HueHub declined to comment.
“Ms. Tauber prefers not to litigate her case in the press as the facts discovered in the litigation will speak for themselves,” Kluger Kaplan attorney Steve Silverman, who is representing Tauber, said in a statement. “There will be no support for the contention made by HueHub’s and Mr. Castro’s lawyers that Ms. Tauber was to obtain investors, invest in the project, or share in expenses.”
Castro also cast doubt about the true scope of the project. The developer secured approval for the $880M Phase 1 of the project, with 4,032 units planned across six 35-story towers at 83954 NW 27th Ave. in the West Little River neighborhood.
In Tauber's complaint, she characterized it as a $1.3B, 6,000-unit development at full build-out. Castro's response denied that characterization.
The HueHub is the largest Miami-Dade County project to utilize the Live Local Act, which allows developments to surpass local height and density restrictions as long as at least 40% of the project is dedicated to those making between 80% and 120% of the area median income.
The project gained its final county approval in August for the first phase and held a demolition ceremony on March 4.
But the momentum didn’t last long. Tauber sued Castro a week later for breach of contract and fraud, later amending her complaint to include defamation.
Castro, who moved to South Florida after selling his Barcelona-based development firm Grupo Corp. about four years ago, filed motions to dismiss most of Tauber's claims, arguing their arrangement was an unenforceable oral agreement, according to the documents filed April 30.
Tauber, who has owned, developed and operated more than 1M SF of shopping centers, multifamily and mixed-use projects with her husband through Taubco, claimed she led approvals, arranged and attended meetings with local leaders for feedback, and spearheaded community engagement.
Tauber also claimed it was her local connections that landed the deal that dedicated 70% of the project’s units to members of police, firefighter, hospitality, teachers and Miami-Dade County employee unions at an affordable rate for 10 years.
While Castro admitted the deals were struck, he denied that it was Tauber’s doing, according to the filing.
The unions listed in the suit — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1099, Public Health Trust of Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade Corrections Department, South Florida Council of Firefighters, South Florida Police Benevolent Association, United Teachers of Dade, United Here Local 355, Florida State FOP Lodge 133 and Teamsters Local 769 — didn’t respond to a request for comment.
