Condo buyers aren't the only ones staying away from the troubling development at the Olympic Village -- now business owners are delaying their scheduled openings.
London Drugs was originally scheduled to open a store in the development this fall, but the launch was delayed until next spring.
Now Wynne Powell, the chain's president, says the company could stall even longer.
"All retailers need traffic in order to make a store work," he told CTV News.
"If the development stays as challenged as it is at this moment, it certainly will be a discussion with the developer as to what we should delay the opening to."
The upscale residential development has struggled to find buyers since the Games ended, despite 223 presales in 2008.
Only 36 more have sold since the completed units hit the market in May -- and all of those sold in the first month. That leaves 454 condos without a buyer.
In the absence of residents, Urban Fare has also delayed its opening, and many smaller retail spaces remain empty.
Two businesses are bucking the trend: The Legacy Liquor Store and the TD Canada Trust bank are both opening this fall.
But Powell says those company's don't face the same constraints as London Drugs.
"Their business model is different than a food store or a drug store," he said. "Retail is a very specialized business -- you have to be always customer-driven."
Lindsay Meredith, a marketing professor at Simon Fraser University, says the development is now caught in a Catch-22.
"You don't attract business without consumers. Consumers look at empty business stores and shy away." he said.
"What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Always get the consumers first. No business will ever invest where they see an empty hole in the marketplace. They have to be able to fill those units, get a population down there, and then they can start to attract the business infrastructure that in turn will attract more consumers."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
