What are the best businesses to open in Back Bay?

The top businesses to open in Back Bay include Japanese / Sushi Restaurant with a ~82% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~84%, followed by Pet Grooming Shop and Music Store.

What businesses are most in demand in Back Bay?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Back Bay are Japanese / Sushi Restaurants, Pet Grooming Shops, and Music Stores.

How can you find the best location to open a business in Back Bay?

StreetSpring's prediction model analyzes 100 factors across competition, spending on the specific potential business, projected revenue, projected market share, Revenue Capture Score, and mobility patterns to pinpoint which blocks in Back Bay maximize success.

How much money could a business in Back Bay make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Back Bay could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~4% more than one of the worst locations.

Business Survivability in Back Bay, Boston

Name: Back Bay (Boston) Business Type Survivability Rankings 2026
Creator: StreetSpring
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Back Bay is a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant with a ~82% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•14 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant in Back Bay (~82% average survival rate, ~84% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #50 across all neighborhoods in and around Boston

Neighborhood average: ~76% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Last reviewed: April 26, 2026 by Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is Back Bay a good place to start a business?
How to find the best location
Best businesses to open
How much money could a business make?
What businesses should open next?
Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Back Bay is a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant with a ~82% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~84% chance; next is a Pet Grooming Shop with a ~82% chance, followed by a Music Store with a ~82% chance.

Is Back Bay a good place to start a business?

StreetSpring's analysis places Back Bay at #50 in Boston for new business survival odds, with a neighborhood-wide average of ~76%.

The most promising business types in the best locations score a ~2% higher chance of surviving 2 years than the average.
Yet the same categories that score highest in Back Bay can underperform significantly at the wrong address. Location precision within the neighborhood matters as much as choosing the neighborhood itself.
Back Bay's employment rate of 95.5% and commercial vacancy of 20.7% are two of the inputs StreetSpring's model uses to differentiate survivability within this neighborhood.

Employment and vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.

Which blocks in Back Bay offer the strongest survivability?

The right address in Back Bay can mean a 20-point survivability difference from an average one — StreetSpring identifies exactly which addresses are worth pursuing. Below is the best location for a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant in Back Bay:

Reading visibility, frontage, and parking carefully

Loading live map preview...

This map shows the optimal location for a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant in Back Bay based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis. Neighborhood-level averages are a starting point — the exact address will determine your actual survivability score. The prediction model incorporates 100 location-specific factors, including competitive density, forecasted consumer spending, mobility patterns, and Revenue Capture Score.

Check if this location is still available →

Which business types have the highest survivability in Back Bay?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Back Bay

Japanese / Sushi Restaurant — ~80%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~82% across Back Bay.
Opening a Pet Grooming Shop in Back Bay shows ~82% average survivability. Top locations reach ~84%; lower-end sites show ~80%.
Music Store (Ranked #3): ~82% average in Back Bay. Best-case storefronts: ~84%. Challenging locations: ~79%.
Mixed Martial Arts Studio is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Back Bay: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~79%.
Singaporean Restaurant — ~80%–~83% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across Back Bay.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Back Bay

Opening a Kosher Restaurant in Back Bay shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~79%.
Pet Boarding Facility (Ranked #7): ~81% average in Back Bay. Best-case storefronts: ~83%. Challenging locations: ~79%.
South American Restaurant is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Back Bay: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~79%.
Day Care Center — ~78%–~83% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across Back Bay.
Opening a Polish Restaurant in Back Bay shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~82%; lower-end sites show ~79%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

The revenue potential of a Back Bay location

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, prioritizing survivability score in your site-selection process in Back Bay could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~4% more than if you selected one of the worst locations.

How StreetSpring calculates location value

Location fit is business-type-specific: a spot that's ideal for a coffee shop may underperform for a nail salon at the same address.
Every site-selection decision starts and ends with location — it outweighs concept, brand, and execution combined.
StreetSpring has found that selecting the location with the highest survivability score for a business is the best way to maximize the amount of money you will make.
StreetSpring generates location-specific predictions tailored to your exact site.

What Back Bay needs more of (per our model)

The top businesses to open next in Back Bay:

Japanese / Sushi Restaurants — ~82% average survival rate, up to ~84% at best locations
Pet Grooming Shops — ~82% average survival rate
Music Stores — ~82% average survival rate

Neighborhood-level averages are a starting point — the exact address will determine your actual survivability score. Our platform incorporates data from thousands of neighborhoods nationwide. Back Bay sits at 95.5% employment and 20.7% commercial vacancy — conditions that set the ceiling and floor for Revenue Capture potential across all business types here. The data behind these rankings is updated weekly, so the best available storefront in Back Bay today may score differently than it did last month — check StreetSpring's live tool for the current picture.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

Related Articles:

See the Boston Business Survivability Rankings
See the Boston Neighborhood Survivability Rankings

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Back Bay.

What type of business should you rent your Back Bay storefront to?

Our 2026 survivability data for Back Bay shows that Japanese / Sushi Restaurants, Pet Grooming Shops, and Music Stores rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.

Every site-selection decision starts and ends with location — it outweighs concept, brand, and execution combined.
StreetSpring generates location-specific predictions tailored to your exact site. Rather than guessing which tenant type will last, landlords can verify survivability for each category at their exact address using StreetSpring.

Should you rent your Back Bay storefront to a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant?

According to our 2026 survivability model, a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant leads all business categories for Back Bay landlords — ~84% at the best addresses and ~80% at the most challenging ones in this neighborhood.

StreetSpring generates location-specific predictions tailored to your exact site.

What should I consider when opening a business in Back Bay?

When evaluating potential locations in Back Bay, start with the Survivability Score. It accounts for competition, spending, mobility, and market share in a single figure.

The Revenue Capture Score at a specific address explains more about likely business success than any other available metric.
Each forecast is specific to the exact address and business type, generated by StreetSpring's internally developed prediction engine.
StreetSpring offers free access to its survivability scores — see how your shortlisted Back Bay addresses rank right now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring uses AI to predict business survivability across U.S. neighborhoods — trusted by real estate professionals and entrepreneurs nationwide. Aggregated survivability rankings for Boston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

The hidden costs of operating in this neighborhood

Area to check	What can go wrong	How to de-risk it
Build-out budget	Underestimating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing — the "hidden" 30-50% of build-out cost.	Get 3 quotes from licensed contractors and pad budget by +20% for surprises. Confirm landlord TI allowance in writing.
Anchor co-tenancy	Signing next to a high-traffic anchor that closes 6 months later, leaving you orphaned.	Ask for a co-tenancy clause — rent abatement or termination right if the anchor leaves. Standard for strong markets.
Foot traffic seasonality	Looking at a peak-summer Tuesday and assuming year-round volume.	Walk the block at 3 different times across 2 different weeks. Ask neighboring tenants for their slow-season % drop.

Full dataset for Boston: /resources/data/boston-survivability-scores-2026.csv — includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Visual Data

Dumbbell chart comparing best vs worst locations for businesses in Boston — Best vs worst neighborhood per business type in Boston — the gap shows how much location choice matters for each subtype.

Treemap of Boston business mix by survivability score — Treemap of business mix in Boston — cell size = number of locations, color = average survivability score.

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in Back Bay, Boston — Top business types scored in Back Bay, Boston — each axis is a subtype, taller = stronger survival rate.

How we measure this: Foot traffic measured at the city-block level using a combination of pedestrian-network analysis and Walk Score.

**Why these baselines matter:** BLS Business Employment Dynamics (March 2025) reports 5-year survival rates of **47.8-61.8%** across the industries StreetSpring covers. Restaurants survive at **50.0%** nationally — not 20%. The location decision is what separates the 30% above the baseline from the 30% below.

Related Resources

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