Spanish developer Pablo Castro, who made a splash with plans for Miami-Dade County’s largest Live Local Act project, faces a third lawsuit over the planned complex.
The Miami Gardens Chamber of Commerce filed a suit against Castro, the Digital Housing Platform entity he manages, and three other people, alleging they misappropriated the chamber’s trade secrets such as putting together government worker leases that can be used as collateral for financing, according to the complaint. The suit was filed last week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Castro says he doesn’t know anyone from the Miami Gardens Chamber of Commerce.
“I have never had any meetings with, nor do I know or have a relationship with any of the individuals mentioned in the lawsuit,” including chamber President Andree L. Williams, Castro said. “As far as I and Digital Housing is concerned, this is a false lawsuit with intent to defame. Every component noted within the suit is untrue.”
Castro plans the HueHub with seven 35-story apartment towers on nearly 12 acres at 8395 Northwest 27th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade, entirely with apartments for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income. This exceeds Live Local Act’s requirement that at least 40 percent of units be set aside for workforce housing.
The HueHub also will have 200,000 square feet of amenities, including retail, dining, and features aimed at creating a community such as gardens, a library, learning center and show kitchen. Castro previously told The Real Deal the development aims to provide a comfortable lifestyle and feel less like below-market rate housing. Construction is expected to start next month, with the financing in the “closing process,” Castro said in a statement last month.
But this year, the project has been marred with litigation.
In the latest filing, the Miami Gardens Chamber of Commerce claims it entered into a joint venture agreement in January with an entity called Nevicott Limited for the chamber to serve as lead broker and lease acquisition agent for government worker leases, according to the complaint. The JV agreement also established the chamber’s role in “deliverables including HUD and Congressional support, patent-filing coordination, federal appropriations advocacy, municipal stakeholder support, and national media campaign coordination,” the suit says.
Although the agreement had a confidentiality provision, including for financial data and deal terms, the defendants used the chamber’s strategy and planning for Digital Housing’s benefit but cut out the chamber “from ownership and economic participation,” the complaint alleges.
The suit also lists Adam Duncan, Leonidas Oxby and Stephen H. Schneider as defendants.
Duncan is of Newmark, and Oxby is of Miami-based Brickell Capital Finance, their LinkedIn accounts show.
Duncan declined to comment. Oxby didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reached by phone, Schneider also said he’s never met with anyone from the chamber.
Castro also said he has no knowledge of Nevicott.
The suit describes a Jan. 30 meeting at Red Rooster Restaurant in Miami when Duncan and Oxby agreed to assist with an introduction between Williams and Castro. But On Feb. 7, Duncan wrote in a group text message something to the effect of “we never discussed such a meeting,” according to the complaint.
The suit doesn’t include exhibits such as the JV agreement or photos of the group text.
Sahr Dumbar, an attorney at The Dumbar Law Center in Brickell who filed the suit, and André L. Williams, an attorney who also is the president of the chamber, didn’t return requests for comment, including on Castro’s pushback that he’s had no dealings with the chamber.
The complaint hasn’t yet been served on the defendants, with the judge on Monday ordering the chamber to do so.
The chamber of commerce also steered clear from going into details about the trade secrets it alleges were misappropriated, saying they’re not general concepts but non-public methods, relationship strategies and other proprietary methods for use for affordable and workforce housing.
Last month, D’Lola Design & Construction, a company led by Silvia Garcia Llorca, sued Castro and his affiliates The HueHub and Digital Housing Platform, alleging it was stiffed from $113,600 for architectural work for the project. Castro said D’Lola’s claims are false.
The first person to allege Castro sidelined her from HueHub was Laura Tauber, a longtime South Florida developer and investor. After working on the project for nearly three years without pay under a verbal agreement with Castro, contributing her local know-how and leading efforts such as community engagements and negotiating a master lease, Castro froze her out of HueHub and records tied to the project, she alleged. She was supposed to receive equity in HueHub as a non-cash investment partner, 50 percent of property management income shared with Castro, 1 percent asset management fee, 10 percent of the developer fee and $50,000 monthly for her work in the past three years, according to Tauber’s complaint.
Castro has responded with motions to dismiss counts in her complaint and with a filing claiming that Tauber never was a project partner but voluntarily wanted to participate to learn about workforce housing development. She was allowed in project meetings and was referred to as a “partner,” but the understanding was that she would bring in equity, invest herself or contribute toward HueHub’s cost –– all things she failed to do, Castro alleged.
Most recently, Tauber’s attorneys filed a motion for sanctions against Castro, alleging that after he forced Tauber out of the office in February and locked her out of her email account, he had an assistant throw away records such as handwritten notes regarding their agreement and printed emails with handwritten annotations that Tauber left on her office desk, according to the filing.
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