What businesses are most in demand in Cambridge Highlands?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Cambridge Highlands are Indonesian Restaurants, Pet Stores, and Pet Grooming Shops.

What are the best businesses to open in Cambridge Highlands?

The top businesses to open in Cambridge Highlands include Indonesian Restaurant with a ~83% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~85%, followed by Pet Store and Pet Grooming Shop.

How much money could a business in Cambridge Highlands make?

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

How can you find the best location to open a business in Cambridge Highlands?

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 Cambridge Highlands maximize success.

Business Survivability in Cambridge Highlands, Boston

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: an Indonesian Restaurant in Cambridge Highlands (~83% average survival rate, ~85% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #44 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

Reviewed and updated: May 1, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is Cambridge Highlands 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 Cambridge Highlands is an Indonesian 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 Pet Store with a ~83% chance, followed by a Pet Grooming Shop with a ~83% chance.

Is Cambridge Highlands a good place to start a business?

**Comparable neighborhoods:** Among the ~2,500 neighborhoods StreetSpring scores, Cambridge Highlands's profile most resembles **Ballard (Seattle)** and **Golden Gate (San Francisco)**. All three exhibit newer housing stock, more college-educated, and white-collar job mix — operators with experience in any of those neighborhoods will see familiar patterns in Cambridge Highlands.

**Failure-mode analysis for Cambridge Highlands.** The single strongest subtype in our data is **Indonesian Restaurant** at 83% average survivability. But the within-neighborhood spread for Indonesian Restaurants runs **78% to 89%** — meaning a poorly-sited Indonesian Restaurant in Cambridge Highlands can score 11 points below a well-sited one. Saturation reality check: Kosher Restaurants are the most-competed tracked subtype here, with 14 existing competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

StreetSpring ranks Cambridge Highlands #44 among all analyzed neighborhoods in and around Boston, with a neighborhood-wide average survivability of ~76%.

The top business types in Cambridge Highlands, when placed at their ideal addresses, achieve survivability rates ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.
However, these same business types at the worst locations in Cambridge Highlands can sometimes provide a projected Survivability Score considerably below the average. Thus, even the businesses that are most in need in Cambridge Highlands could have trouble succeeding if the best location is not selected.
With 94.9% of the local population employed, Cambridge Highlands presents a stable consumer base — particularly for food, beverage, and service businesses that depend on repeat discretionary spending.

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

Where in Cambridge Highlands should you open a business?

StreetSpring can pinpoint which exact blocks in Cambridge Highlands maximize a business's chances of success. The map below highlights the highest-survivability address for an Indonesian Restaurant in Cambridge Highlands:

Reading visibility, frontage, and parking carefully

Loading live map preview...

StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for an Indonesian Restaurant in Cambridge Highlands. Market conditions are changing daily, and it is best to use StreetSpring's most up-to-date data. 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 →

Top-ranked business types for Cambridge Highlands

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Cambridge Highlands

Indonesian Restaurant (Ranked #1): ~83% average in Cambridge Highlands. Best-case storefronts: ~85%. Challenging locations: ~82%.
Pet Store is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Cambridge Highlands: ~83% chance on average, best at ~85%, challenging at ~81%.
Pet Grooming Shop — ~80%–~85% survivability range, with an average of ~83% across Cambridge Highlands.
Opening a Dance Club in Cambridge Highlands shows ~82% average survivability. Top locations reach ~84%; lower-end sites show ~80%.
Indian Restaurant (Ranked #5): ~82% average in Cambridge Highlands. Best-case storefronts: ~85%. Challenging locations: ~80%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Cambridge Highlands

Bangladeshi Restaurant is ranked #6 for top businesses to open in Cambridge Highlands: ~82% chance on average, best at ~85%, challenging at ~81%.
Diner — ~80%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~82% across Cambridge Highlands.
Opening a Kosher Restaurant in Cambridge Highlands shows ~82% average survivability. Top locations reach ~84%; lower-end sites show ~80%.
Veterinary Clinic (Ranked #9): ~82% average in Cambridge Highlands. Best-case storefronts: ~84%. Challenging locations: ~79%.
Russian Restaurant is ranked #10 for top businesses to open in Cambridge Highlands: ~82% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~80%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

What revenue can a Cambridge Highlands business expect?

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, identifying the optimal address for your business type in Cambridge Highlands 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

No two business types have identical location needs; survivability scores reflect these differences at the address level.
Site selection is the highest-leverage decision most entrepreneurs make — it sets every other variable in motion.
Survivability Score is not just a survival metric — it's a revenue predictor, and the higher the score, the stronger the long-term financial outlook.
Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.

What Cambridge Highlands needs more of (per our model)

The top businesses to open next in Cambridge Highlands:

Indonesian Restaurants — ~83% average survival rate, up to ~85% at best locations
Pet Stores — ~83% average survival rate
Pet Grooming Shops — ~83% average survival rate

Market conditions are changing daily, and it is best to use StreetSpring's most up-to-date data. StreetSpring measures competition through a 30-factor framework layered on top of proprietary consumer spending forecasts and mobility models. The survivability rankings for Cambridge Highlands are grounded in real economic conditions: 94.9% employment and 13.5% vacancy are among the key inputs that separate high-scoring locations from low-scoring ones here. Survivability scores are recalculated weekly as new competitors open and spending patterns shift — visit StreetSpring to see the current score for any open location in Cambridge Highlands right now.

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 Cambridge Highlands.

What type of business should you rent your Cambridge Highlands storefront to?

According to StreetSpring's 2026 data, the strongest tenant types for a storefront in Cambridge Highlands are Indonesian Restaurants, Pet Stores, and Pet Grooming Shops.

Site selection is the highest-leverage decision most entrepreneurs make — it sets every other variable in motion.
Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood. 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 Cambridge Highlands storefront to an Indonesian Restaurant?

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis strongly supports renting to an Indonesian Restaurant in Cambridge Highlands: best-in-class addresses achieve ~85% survivability, and even the lower-end sites come in at ~82% — above average for most business types.

Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.

What should I consider when opening a business in Cambridge Highlands?

In Cambridge Highlands, the single most important factor in your site-selection decision is the Survivability Score of the specific address you're evaluating.

Revenue Capture Score matters more than any other single metric when predicting business outcomes.
Every survivability score is produced by StreetSpring's private prediction engine — not available through any other platform.
Access StreetSpring's current survivability data for any address in Cambridge Highlands for free at any time.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring's models are built from millions of real business outcomes, making predictions grounded in what actually happened. 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
Lease term	Locking into 7-10 years without break clauses, then needing to relocate after year 2.	Negotiate a relocation or termination clause. Confirm assignment + sublease rights are in writing.
Permits & licensing	Assuming a 30-day permit timeline, hitting 90+ days, paying rent on a non-operating storefront.	Call the local zoning office before signing. Confirm your use is already permitted; if not, factor a 2-3 month variance timeline.
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

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 Cambridge Highlands, Boston — Top business types scored in Cambridge Highlands, Boston — each axis is a subtype, taller = stronger survival rate.

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.

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

**Sector-level context:** BLS data (BLS Business Employment Dynamics, March 2025 release) shows 5-year survival rates of **47.8%** (Active Life), **47.9%** (Retail Trade), **50.0%** (Restaurants), **50.5%** (Beauty & Personal Care), and **61.8%** (Health & Medical) — the five industry buckets covering most StreetSpring subtypes. Location-specific factors explain the rest of the variance.

**LEHD demand-pattern signal (Cambridge Highlands):** Median 1-mile workplace jobs around Cambridge Highlands grid points: **14,584** (LEHD LODES 2022). That works out to a **1.8:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** — a balanced mixed-use pattern. Of those workplace jobs, **1,347** are retail-sector. Use this to gauge whether your concept is weekday-commuter-driven or evening-and-weekend-driven.

Landmark anchor: Cambridge Highlands centers on West Cambridge Science Park — a public-space anchor that influences walking and dwell-time patterns nearby.

**Economic context that bounds the demand environment in Cambridge Highlands:** Per ACS, neighborhood unemployment is **5.1%** (in line with the 24-metro neighborhood median). BLS QCEW shows the Boston metro's average weekly wage at **$1,631** (above our 24-metro median). And Suffolk County permitted **2,338** new residential units in 2025 per Census BPS — a population-and-demand growth signal.

Related Resources

Related:

Beyond the Numbers: Local Context

More questions answered with neighborhood-specific data from our 2026 corpus.

How does Boston's survivability compare to national sector averages?

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.

What does the employment picture in Cambridge Highlands look like for new businesses?

Roughly 95% of Cambridge Highlands's working-age population is employed, against a Boston metro median of 96%. Employment is close to the metro median, suggesting stable underlying demand.

What is the median age in Cambridge Highlands, and what does that mean for businesses?

Cambridge Highlands's median age is 36 versus a Boston metro median of 41 — younger by 5 years. This shapes which business types tend to survive: A younger profile tends to drive demand for nightlife, fitness, and casual dining over family-oriented services.