Nativescript 8.5 build error while building for Android

Question

After upgrading my project from 6.x to 8.x I can no longer build for Android. I get the following error:

Build file '/Users/user/Documents/project/platforms/android/app/build.gradle' line: 589
A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.
entry

Command ./gradlew failed with exit code 1

the offending line is this:

// Discover all jars and dynamically create tasks for the extraction of each of them
project.ext.allJars = []
allprojects {
    afterEvaluate { project ->
        def buildType = project.selectedBuildType
        def jars = []
        def artifactType = Attribute.of('artifactType', String)
        android.applicationVariants.all { variant ->
            if (variant.buildType.name == buildType) {
                variant.getCompileClasspath().each { fileDependency ->  // THIS IS IT
                    processJar(fileDependency, jars)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Here is my package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "prepare-ios": "ns clean; ns prepare ios --release",
    "postinstall": "cp patches/firebase/firebase-release.aar node_modules/@nativescript/firebase/platforms/android"
  },
  "main": "./app/app.ts",
  "description": "NativeScript Application",
  "license": "SEE LICENSE IN <your-license-filename>",
  "repository": "<fill-your-repository-here>",
  "dependencies": {
    "@nativescript/core": "^8.6.2",
    "@nativescript/email": "^2.0.5",
    "@nativescript/fingerprint-auth": "^8.1.0",
    "@nativescript/firebase": "^11.1.3",
    "@nativescript/iqkeyboardmanager": "^2.0.0",
    "@nativescript/local-notifications": "^6.0.0",
    "@nativescript/theme": "^3.0.2",
    "@nstudio/nativescript-loading-indicator": "^4.1.2",
    "@triniwiz/nativescript-image-zoom": "^4.1.3",
    "moment": "^2.29.4",
    "moment-timezone": "^0.5.31",
    "nativescript-exit": "^1.0.1",
    "nativescript-numeric-keyboard": "^5.0.2",
    "nativescript-pdf-view": "^3.0.0-1",
    "nativescript-phone": "^3.0.3",
    "nativescript-ui-calendar": "^14.2.1",
    "nativescript-webview-utils": "^4.0.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@nativescript/android": "8.6.2",
    "@nativescript/ios": "^8.6.3",
    "@nativescript/types": "~8.6.1",
    "@nativescript/webpack": "~5.0.18",
    "@types/node": "^20.11.16",
    "typescript": "~5.3.2"
  },
  "gitHead": "",
  "readme": "NativeScript Application"
}

Here is the output from ns doctor:

✔ Getting environment information 

No issues were detected.
✔ Your ANDROID_HOME environment variable is set and points to correct directory.
✔ Your adb from the Android SDK is correctly installed.
✔ The Android SDK is installed.
✔ A compatible Android SDK for compilation is found.
✔ Javac is installed and is configured properly.
✔ The Java Development Kit (JDK) is installed and is configured properly.
✔ Xcode is installed and is configured properly.
✔ xcodeproj is installed and is configured properly.
✔ CocoaPods are installed.
✔ CocoaPods update is not required.
✔ CocoaPods are configured properly.
✔ Your current CocoaPods version is newer than 1.0.0.
✔ Python installed and configured correctly.
✔ The Python 'six' package is found.
✔ Xcode version 15.2.0 satisfies minimum required version 10.
✔ Getting NativeScript components versions information...
✔ Component nativescript has 8.6.5 version and is up to date.
✔ Component @nativescript/core has 8.6.2 version and is up to date.
✔ Component @nativescript/ios has 8.6.3 version and is up to date.
✔ Component @nativescript/android has 8.6.2 version and is up to date.

I have been stuck on this for 2 days. Tried cleaning the project, playing around with different adnroid build tool versions, etc. Nothing had worked so far.

Any ideas on what is going on?