And aside from not enough parking space, the businesses have no complaints.

"It's been a nice evolution for all of us," said Claudia Neeley, owner of The Vegan Gourmet. "It's becoming that down-home type of place for this community."

When the gas station closed down several years ago, Boston's North End Pizza Bakery moved into one end of the building, leaving the small office space in the front unused.

And that became an opportunity.

About two years ago, The Vegan Gourmet started renting the front office for its catering-only service. This past January Le Chateau, a funky boutique, opened next door. Later a drive-through coffee shop opened. Then about a month ago Manoa Imports Bazaar set up shop in the parking lot, selling sarongs and dresses out of a converted airport shuttle bus.

The result? A collaborative effort by small-business owners to use a small space and increase profits.

"It's growing, evolving, morphing," Neeley said. "And it's wonderful."

Retail businesses that share a common space will benefit more from working together than being overly competitive, said retail sales consultant Ron Martin of Success Dynamics.

"When two or more people get together with a common goal, in the spirit of harmony, everyone benefits," said Martin, who conducts "success rallies" at shopping centers to get merchants to work together. "Different merchants should sit down and talk to each other about common goals — and that's to do more business — and work in harmony. They'll wind up being nice to each other and to their customers."

Martin said customers who have bad experiences at one shop in a retail area may leave and bypass the other stores. They may never come back.

"Everyone benefits from being good to everyone else's customers," he said. "When you're just thinking about your own income, you're missing an opportunity to strive for excellence."

Working together has proven beneficial to everyone at the old gas station, which has become the neighborhood's "secret spot."

About three months ago, Neeley started the Boston Waffle Shoppe, serving homemade waffles on the weekends and, in the process, drawing more customers. The shutdown of Zippy's in the Manoa Marketplace about six months ago has also helped this venture, with more people coming to the former gas station for coffee and waffles in the morning and dining in the covered lounge area outside.

Coffee sales have soared at the nearby kiosk since Neeley started serving waffles, its owners said. And business at The Vegan Gourmet has grown, as well.

The concept of serving waffles on the weekends, topped with fresh fruits and tropical syrups, has been so popular, Neeley will open another Boston Waffle Shoppe in 'Aiea, next to that Boston's North End Pizza Bakery. The Manoa location has also started accepting reservations for parties and other celebrations.

Ken Johnson's Manoa Imports Bazaar, a weekend operation, chose the location because of the customer traffic. "People come for pizza and waffles," he says, and he likes his customers "in a relaxed mode."

The little shop, owned by local wholesale manufacturing and distributing company Casual Movements, sells clothing and other goods imported from Thailand, Bali, India and Indonesia. Like the waffle shop, it's open only on the weekends.

Johnson said the company chose this spot because of the amount of traffic coming through the old gas station.

"It was a pocket of opportunity," he said. "People come for pizza and waffles. They come in a relaxed mode, and that's the type of thing we're selling — clothing for the relaxed person."

The only challenge these businesses face is meeting the growing demand for their products and services.

They're limited by the number of parking stalls — about a dozen — and by the floor space to sell their goods.The pizzeria, catering company and coffee kiosk all share one walk-in freezer, forcing them to keep their inventories low.

The limited space makes cooperation and communication critical, and so far the businesses have been able to work around — and with — each other.

"Everything is timing," said Kent Uehara, co-owner of the coffee shop, It's a Beautiful Day Kafe. "It hasn't been too bad. We all share."