Gradle Error: String index out of range: 0
<p>Trying to compile an Android project with Gradle and getting a weird error. 
When I run <code>./gradlew tasks --stacktrace</code>. Tried clean rebuild, fresh clone of repo, different branches, colleagues are able to build aok. </p>

<p>Looking for ideas of things to check/try to fix this. </p>

<p><strong>*update: reverting to Gradle 2.11 and <code>com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.2.0-alpha6</code> seems to have fixed the issue. *</strong></p>

<p>Here's the stack:</p>

<pre><code>FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
String index out of range: 0

* Try:
Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.

* Exception is:
java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 0
        at org.gradle.internal.reflect.JavaReflectionUtil.toMethodName(JavaReflectionUtil.java:196)
        at org.gradle.internal.reflect.JavaReflectionUtil.writeablePropertyIfExists(JavaReflectionUtil.java:156)
        at org.gradle.initialization.ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader$CachingPropertyApplicator.configureProperty(ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader.java:99)
        at org.gradle.initialization.ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader.addPropertiesToProject(ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader.java:76)
        at org.gradle.initialization.ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader.setProjectProperties(ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader.java:53)
        at org.gradle.initialization.ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader.load(ProjectPropertySettingBuildLoader.java:49)
        at org.gradle.initialization.NotifyingSettingsLoader.findAndLoadSettings(NotifyingSettingsLoader.java:35)
        at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuildStages(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:118)
        at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.access$200(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:32)
        at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher$1.create(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:98)
        at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher$1.create(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:92)
        at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:91)
        at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:63)
        at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuild(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:92)
        at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.run(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:83)
        at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter$DefaultBuildController.run(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:99)
        at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ExecuteBuildActionRunner.run(ExecuteBuildActionRunner.java:28)
        at org.gradle.launcher.exec.ChainingBuildActionRunner.run(ChainingBuildActionRunner.java:35)
        at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:48)
        at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:30)
        at org.gradle.launcher.exec.ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.execute(ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.java:81)
        at org.gradle.launcher.exec.ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.execute(ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.java:46)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ExecuteBuild.doBuild(ExecuteBuild.java:52)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:36)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.WatchForDisconnection.execute(WatchForDisconnection.java:37)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ResetDeprecationLogger.execute(ResetDeprecationLogger.java:26)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.RequestStopIfSingleUsedDaemon.execute(RequestStopIfSingleUsedDaemon.java:34)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput$2.call(ForwardClientInput.java:74)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput$2.call(ForwardClientInput.java:72)
        at org.gradle.util.Swapper.swap(Swapper.java:38)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput.execute(ForwardClientInput.java:72)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.health.DaemonHealthTracker.execute(DaemonHealthTracker.java:40)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.LogToClient.doBuild(LogToClient.java:60)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:36)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.EstablishBuildEnvironment.doBuild(EstablishBuildEnvironment.java:72)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:36)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.health.HintGCAfterBuild.execute(HintGCAfterBuild.java:41)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.StartBuildOrRespondWithBusy$1.run(StartBuildOrRespondWithBusy.java:50)
        at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.DaemonStateCoordinator$1.run(DaemonStateCoordinator.java:237)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:54)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.StoppableExecutorImpl$1.run(StoppableExecutorImpl.java:40)
</code></pre>

<h2>System details:</h2>

<h2>Gradle 2.14.1</h2>

<p>Build time:   2016-07-18 06:38:37 UTC
Revision:     d9e2113d9fb05a5caabba61798bdb8dfdca83719</p>

<p>Groovy:       2.4.4
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.6 compiled on June 29 2015
JVM:          1.8.0_101 (Oracle Corporation 25.101-b13)
OS:           Mac OS X 10.11.6 x86_64</p>