Spaniard Pablo Castro, who debuted in Miami real estate with plans for the biggest Live Local Act project, has allegedly stiffed more than one professional who helped lay the groundwork for the megadevelopment.
D’Lola Design & Construction, a company led by Silvia Garcia Llorca, is the second to claim it dedicated months of work on various aspects of the project, only to be strung along by Castro about potential rewards and compensation. D’Lola sued Castro and two of his affiliates, The HueHub and Digital Housing Platform, in Miami-Dade Circuit Court last week.
The complaint comes as Castro and his two entities are fighting a lawsuit from Laura Tauber, a longtime South Florida developer, who sued Castro in March, claiming he sidelined her from their project partnership and then reneged on his promises for a profit share. Castro recently fired back in court, saying Tauber was never a partner and that her compensation depended on her bringing in equity, investing herself or carrying some of the expenses, none of which she did. Instead, she knowingly partook in the project without payment because she wanted to learn about workforce housing development, Castro said in court filings.
The HueHub development, planned for seven 35-story towers with over 4,000 units on 12 acres in West Little River, is the biggest known Miami-Dade County project under the Live Local Act. Originally proposed in 2024, HueHub scored final approval last summer, with Castro revealing plans for a community-type campus complete with child care, an education center to help children with homework, retail, dining and other amenities meant to provide a supportive lifestyle at attainable rents. He also said he planned to use modular construction methods, such as pre-fabricated interiors.
All units would be designated for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, surpassing the Live Local Act’s requirement that 40 percent of units are capped at this threshold.
Construction is expected to start in July, with development financing now in the final stages, Castro said.
As for D’Lola’s claims, they are false, he said, declining to provide more comment.
The D’Lola suit alleges Castro contacted Llorca in 2023, eventually hiring her for the HueHub due to her experience as an engineer and in modular construction.
At one point, Castro advised D’Lola that although the official project architect would be Arquitectonica due to its “brand recognition,” D’Lola would “handle a major portion of the work,” according to the complaint.
D’Lola’s work included meeting with providers of pre-fabricated kitchens and bathrooms, and standardizing the designs of these modular interiors across all HueHub units for cost efficiency, as well as working on project amenity plans. At one point, D’Lola also worked on Castro’s Aston Martin Miami condo.
The complaint outlines a 2023 payment structure to D’Lola that changed a few times over the following two and a half years. The agreed upon fee was $160 per hour, the lawsuit alleges. Then in 2024, Castro proposed a switch to a flat $8,000 monthly fee and $2,000 in cash, which D’Lola accepted partly relying on Castro’s word that the firm would soon earn “a lot of money,” according to the complaint. But later, Castro said D’Lola should work on a “per completed task” basis, the suit says.
Things changed again in 2025, when Castro told D’Lola to negotiate a new fee, which ended up being $15,000 a month plus $7,500 per amenity/building plan completed –– yet D’Lola ultimately was paid $10,000 a month.
As a whole, D’Lola claims it received only partial payments, with $113,629 still due.
In the latter half of last year, D’Lola repeatedly requested payment, but Castro kept responding that they will “discuss it next week,” which never happened, the complaint says. D’Lola stopped working for HueHub in January.
Castro, while a newcomer to South Florida, has a long history in real estate in Spain, starting housing development firm Grupo Corp with a partner in 2007. By 2021, following a partnership with Spain’s Grifols family, owners of a pharmaceutical conglomerate, Grupo Corp had grown into the top Barcelona area developer with a hefty pipeline. Castro exited Grupo Corp about four years ago.
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Unmasking the developers of South Florida’s biggest Live Local Act project