If I follow this steps to create a new app:
Rubens-MacBook-Pro:~ rlopez$ npm install -g cordova ionic
Rubens-MacBook-Pro:~ rlopez$ ionic start myApp tabs
Rubens-
Got the same error today. Thanks to the comments above, here is how I fixed it.
Ran:
cordova build android --verbose
and it showed me where it got the "Permission Denied" error... In my case it was:
Running command: /usr/libexec/java_home
Command finished with error code 0: /usr/libexec/java_home
ANDROID_HOME=/Users/mj/phonegap/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64-20140321/sdk
JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_40.jdk/Contents/Home
Running command: "/Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/gradle/gradle-2.2.1/bin/gradle"
-p /Users/mj/EduceMobile/app/platforms/android wrapper -b /Users/mj/EduceMobile/app/platfo
rms/android/wrapper.gradle
To fix, ran:
sudo chmod 755 /Applications/Android\ Studio.app/Contents/gradle/gradle-2.2.1/bin/gradle
...and
...
...
:cdvBuildDebug
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 2 mins 44.195 secs
Hope it helps.