The owners of Millennium Development Corp. say they are working on a plan to boost sales of their troubled Olympic Village condominium project in Vancouver by helping buyers with the HST.

Peter and Shahram Malek said on Thursday they're working with the city to come up with incentives for the project, which was renamed Millennium Waters after the Games, but they gave few specific details about their plans

The brothers spoke with the media about the development for the first time in an effort to respond to reports of financial instability and slow sales. Last month, the city put Millennium on notice after it fell $3 million short on a $200-million loan repayment.

Their next $75-million payment is due in January and Malek said he's confident Millennium will pay its bill in full.

Critics have suggested the city would be well served to do away with the 250 social housing units at the village, but the brothers said Millennium is committed to having a diverse community.

They said they're confident they will sell the hundreds of empty units in the former Olympic Village, but cautioned they are not expecting it to happen quickly.

Any plan would still have to be approved by the city of Vancouver, which is Millennium's lender for the project.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said last month he has told Millennium it needs to produce a plan to market and sell the Olympic Village condominium units, which have been slow to move in a softening housing market.

The developer's original lender, New York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Group, stopped paying its loan in 2008, forcing the city to step in and secure hundreds of millions of dollars to finish the project in time for the 2010 Winter Games.

With files from the CBC's Belle Puri