No build folder in android build (no generated APK's)

When I’m building to deploy there seems to be no android/project/build folder. I need to sign the unsigned .apk's to deploy but they are not generated (no build folder).

Here is the build command I am using:

meteor build "$OUTPUT_PATH" --server "$SERVER" --verbose

note: this has been working fine for months.

I’m using Meteor 1.3.4.4 but i have had this issue with 1.3.2.1 also. Also using Android SDK 23 (targetSDKVersion), if you think i may not have the correct Android sdk tools installed let me know and i can screenshot what is installed. I have had this issue since updating to Meteor 1.3. At first it only happened temperamentally and now it is consistent. I have tried removing .meteor/cordova-build this hasn’t changed the result. Right now I cannot release to android without the APK’s.

Any idea on a way around this?

note: a similar issue here - https://github.com/meteor/meteor/issues/6756