Is Beacon Hill a good place to start a business?

Beacon Hill is ranked number 12 across neighborhoods in and around Boston to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~78%. The top business types in Beacon Hill, when placed at their ideal addresses, achieve survivability rates ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.

How can you find the best location to open a business in Beacon Hill?

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 Beacon Hill maximize success.

How much money could a business in Beacon Hill make?

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

What businesses are most in demand in Beacon Hill?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Beacon Hill are Japanese / Sushi Restaurants, French Restaurants, and South American Restaurants.

What are the best businesses to open in Beacon Hill?

The top businesses to open in Beacon Hill include Japanese / Sushi Restaurant with a ~83% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~85%, followed by French Restaurant and South American Restaurant.

Business Survivability in Beacon Hill, Boston

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Beacon Hill is a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant with a ~83% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•19 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant in Beacon Hill (~83% average survival rate, ~85% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #12 across all neighborhoods in and around Boston

Neighborhood average: ~78% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed: May 5, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder

In this article:

Summary
Is Beacon Hill 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 Beacon Hill is a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant with a ~83% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~85% chance; next is a French Restaurant with a ~83% chance, followed by a South American Restaurant with a ~83% chance.

Is Beacon Hill the right neighborhood for a new business?

**Where else does Beacon Hill look like?** The strongest demographic and amenity-density matches are **Tribeca (New York City)** and **Center City (Philadelphia)**, sharing many nearby parks, high office density, and many anchor tenants. If you've worked in either of those neighborhoods, expect Beacon Hill to behave similarly on the dimensions that drive survival.

**What goes wrong in Beacon Hill.** Across 93 subtypes we track, **South American Restaurant averages 83%** — the highest in the neighborhood. Yet a site-level look shows South American Restaurants range from **79% to 85%** across Beacon Hill — a 6-point window where the address, not the concept, decides the outcome. For competitive density: Middle Eastern Restaurants are the most-concentrated tracked subtype (41 within 0.5 miles).

Beacon Hill holds the #12 position in and around Boston for new business survivability, averaging ~78% across all analyzed business types.

The top business types in Beacon Hill, when placed at their ideal addresses, achieve survivability rates ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.
But at poorly chosen addresses within Beacon Hill, even the top-ranked business types can fall well below the neighborhood average. Location selection remains critical — a promising concept at the wrong spot still carries significant risk.
StreetSpring's model incorporates Beacon Hill's 18.3% vacancy rate as a direct input: higher vacancy concentrations suppress foot traffic and reduce survivability for nearby businesses.

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

Where in Beacon Hill should you open a business?

StreetSpring scores survivability at the exact address level in Beacon Hill — so you can compare two storefronts on the same block before committing to a lease. Here is the top survivability address for a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant in Beacon Hill, per StreetSpring's 2026 model:

Why the right block matters more than the right neighborhood

Loading live map preview...

StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant in Beacon Hill. Market conditions, new competitors, and local spending patterns can change rapidly — always verify with StreetSpring's live tool before signing a lease. The model evaluates 100 factors — from primary and secondary competition to forecasted spend, mobility flows, and local market share potential.

Check if this location is still available →

What kinds of businesses thrive in Beacon Hill?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Beacon Hill

Japanese / Sushi Restaurant is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Beacon Hill: ~83% chance on average, best at ~85%, challenging at ~81%.
French Restaurant — ~81%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~83% across Beacon Hill.
Opening a South American Restaurant in Beacon Hill shows ~83% average survivability. Top locations reach ~85%; lower-end sites show ~81%.
Armenian Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~83% average in Beacon Hill. Best-case storefronts: ~84%. Challenging locations: ~81%.
Pet Grooming Shop is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Beacon Hill: ~83% chance on average, best at ~84%, challenging at ~80%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Beacon Hill

Mixed Martial Arts Studio — ~80%–~85% survivability range, with an average of ~83% across Beacon Hill.
Opening a Polish Restaurant in Beacon Hill shows ~82% average survivability. Top locations reach ~84%; lower-end sites show ~81%.
Music Store (Ranked #8): ~82% average in Beacon Hill. Best-case storefronts: ~85%. Challenging locations: ~80%.
Veterinary Clinic is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Beacon Hill: ~82% chance on average, best at ~84%, challenging at ~80%.
Indian Restaurant — ~80%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~82% across Beacon Hill.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

What you could earn opening a business in Beacon Hill

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing a high-performing site for your concept in Beacon Hill 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.
Among all variables that affect business outcomes, location has the highest predictive weight in our models.
StreetSpring's analysis shows that businesses in top-scoring locations generate meaningfully more revenue and stay open longer than those in average locations.
Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually.

The biggest opportunity gaps in Beacon Hill

The top businesses to open next in Beacon Hill:

Japanese / Sushi Restaurants — ~83% average survival rate, up to ~85% at best locations
French Restaurants — ~83% average survival rate
South American Restaurants — ~83% average survival rate

Market conditions, new competitors, and local spending patterns can change rapidly — always verify with StreetSpring's live tool before signing a lease. Every prediction draws on a dataset of millions of business openings, closures, and lifecycle events across the U.S. With Beacon Hill's 96.7% employment rate factored in, the businesses best positioned to succeed here are those that benefit from a well-employed, spending-capable local consumer base. New competitors open and close every week, changing the survivability landscape for every address in Beacon Hill. StreetSpring's weekly updates mean you can always see the current score for any available storefront.

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 Beacon Hill.

What type of business should you rent your Beacon Hill storefront to?

The analysis is clear: in Beacon Hill, Japanese / Sushi Restaurants, French Restaurants, and South American Restaurants consistently score highest on survivability, giving landlords the best chance of retaining tenants for 2+ years.

Among all variables that affect business outcomes, location has the highest predictive weight in our models.
Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually. Run your specific address through StreetSpring to see which tenant categories give you the best odds of stable, long-term occupancy.

Should you rent your Beacon Hill storefront to a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant?

According to our 2026 survivability model, a Japanese / Sushi Restaurant leads all business categories for Beacon Hill landlords — ~85% at the best addresses and ~81% at the most challenging ones in this neighborhood.

Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually.

What should I consider when opening a business in Beacon Hill?

Among all the criteria to weigh when opening a business in Beacon Hill, Survivability Score carries the most predictive weight — choose the address with the highest score your budget allows.

Among all the inputs that shape survivability, Revenue Capture Score carries the most predictive weight.
No third-party scoring system produces these results — every prediction is generated by StreetSpring's own analytical models.
You can check the Survivability Score for any storefront in Beacon Hill at no cost using StreetSpring's live tool.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

Real estate professionals and business owners across 24 major metros use StreetSpring to ground their site-selection decisions in data, not guesswork. Aggregated survivability rankings for Boston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Lease structure questions to ask first

Factor	Where new owners get tripped up	Questions to ask before you sign
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.
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.
Competitor density	Counting only direct competitors and missing adjacent-category overlap (e.g. coffee shop near a bakery).	Map all businesses serving overlapping customer needs within a 5-min walk. Use StreetSpring's competitor view as a starting point.

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

Bubble chart of business subtypes in Boston by survivability score and location density — Every business subtype in Boston plotted by score vs location count — bubble size shows market depth.

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.

How we measure this: Supplier proximity matters more for some subtypes (restaurants, repair shops) than others (online-anchored retail).

**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.

**Beacon Hill at a glance.** Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is also the location of the Massachusetts State House. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_Hill%2C_Boston))

**Daytime worker density (Beacon Hill):** LEHD LODES Workplace Area Characteristics show a **42.5:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** for Beacon Hill — a strong commercial-corridor / CBD signal. Median workplace jobs within a 1-mile radius of grid points in Beacon Hill: **341,088**, of which roughly **7,048** are retail-sector. Higher daytime ratios favor weekday-lunch / commuter-traffic businesses; balanced ratios favor residential + weekend demand patterns.

Landmark anchor: Beacon Hill hosts Museum of African American History, a history-museum that gives the neighborhood a cultural-destination layer most blocks don't have.

**Beacon Hill economic snapshot:** ACS reports neighborhood unemployment at **3.3%** (below the 24-metro neighborhood median we track). The Boston metro's BLS QCEW average weekly wage is **$1,631** (above our metro median), and the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey logged **2,338** new residential permits in Suffolk County in 2025 — useful triangulation for population-growth and labor-cost assumptions in this neighborhood.

Related Resources

Related:

Local Data Questions

Additional questions with answers drawn directly from local data sources.

How big is the Beacon Hill market in terms of resident population?

ACS data estimates the Beacon Hill resident population at roughly 8K. A smaller resident base means destination-pull or commuter capture matters more than walk-in traffic alone.

What survival rates does the federal government track for small businesses?

Per BLS Business Employment Dynamics (March 2025), 5-year survival rates by sector range from 47.8% (Active Life — gyms, studios) to 61.8% (Health & Medical), with Restaurants at 50% and Retail at 47.9%. Boston-specific factors layer on top of these national baselines.

Does ownership stability in Beacon Hill support steady local spending?

Home ownership in Beacon Hill is approximately 41%, versus the Boston metro median of 56%. A higher renter share often means more population turnover; quick-service food, fitness, and convenience tend to do well in such environments.

Does Beacon Hill's education level matter for picking a business type?

ACS data shows 88% of adults in Beacon Hill with a bachelor's degree or higher, versus the metro median of 58%. A highly educated population tends to support specialty retail, premium services, and professional offices.

What is the median age in Beacon Hill, and what does that mean for businesses?

The median age in Beacon Hill is 40, younger by the Boston metro median (41) by 1 year. The demographic profile is close to the metro average, so business-type fit is driven by other factors like income and competition.