Shops have served Manly Village since the 1950s. With steamers arriving at Little Manly Wharf from Auckland, the village became the natural hub for a second retail centre serving both sides of the Peninsula.

The original single-level shops remain today, though the surrounding area saw significant growth in the 1970s. A more ambitious development was proposed at 60–62 Rawhiti Road - the Manly Ridge Apartments, a multi-storey complex with ground-floor retail and upper-level apartments. Resource consent was first granted in 2009 and amended in 2013, with construction planned for around 2017, but the project never went ahead.

At 54 Rawhiti Road, the upper level was successfully converted from retail into seven residential units in 2015.