How much money could a business in Downtown make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Downtown could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~5% more than one of the worst locations.

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

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 Downtown maximize success.

What businesses are most in demand in Downtown?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Downtown are Hot Pot Restaurants, South American Restaurants, and Mixed Martial Arts Studios.

Is Downtown a good place to start a business?

Downtown is ranked number 31 across neighborhoods in and around Boston to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~77%. Top-performing business types at the best addresses in Downtown show a ~2% survival rate advantage over the neighborhood average.

What are the best businesses to open in Downtown?

The top businesses to open in Downtown include Hot Pot Restaurant with a ~82% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~84%, followed by South American Restaurant and Mixed Martial Arts Studio.

Business Survivability in Downtown, Boston

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

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Hot Pot Restaurant in Downtown (~82% average survival rate, ~84% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #31 across all neighborhoods in and around Boston

Neighborhood average: ~77% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed: April 25, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder

In this article:

Summary
Is Downtown 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 Downtown is a Hot Pot 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 South American Restaurant with a ~82% chance, followed by a Mixed Martial Arts Studio with a ~81% chance.

Should you open a business in Downtown?

**Comparable neighborhoods:** Among the ~2,500 neighborhoods StreetSpring scores, Downtown's profile most resembles **Logan Circle (Washington DC)** and **Downtown (Seattle)**. All three exhibit many high-wage jobs nearby, busier daytime population, and many anchor tenants — operators with experience in any of those neighborhoods will see familiar patterns in Downtown.

**Failure-mode analysis for Downtown.** The single strongest subtype in our data is **South American Restaurant** at 82% average survivability. But the within-neighborhood spread for South American Restaurants runs **74% to 86%** — meaning a poorly-sited South American Restaurant in Downtown can score 12 points below a well-sited one. Saturation reality check: Ukrainian Restaurants are the most-competed tracked subtype here, with 43 existing competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

Across all neighborhoods in and around Boston, StreetSpring's data places Downtown at #31 with a ~77% average Survivability Score.

Top-performing business types at the best addresses in Downtown show a ~2% survival rate advantage over the neighborhood average.
That said, the same business types at the worst-fit addresses in Downtown can drop substantially below average. The survivability gap between the best and worst addresses in a single neighborhood can be 20 points or more.
Commercial vacancy in Downtown sits at 17.5%, a figure that factors into survivability scores for every business type in this neighborhood.

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

Which blocks in Downtown offer the strongest survivability?

With StreetSpring, location selection in Downtown moves from guesswork to a precise, address-level survivability score for any business type you're considering. Here is the top survivability address for a Hot Pot Restaurant in Downtown, per StreetSpring's 2026 model:

Reading visibility, frontage, and parking carefully

Loading live map preview...

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of 100 location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for a Hot Pot Restaurant in Downtown. These rankings are based on the latest available data; check StreetSpring for real-time updates. Factors evaluated include competition at every distance band, consumer spending forecasts, mobility patterns, and market share projections.

Check if this location is still available →

What kinds of businesses thrive in Downtown?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Downtown

Hot Pot Restaurant is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Downtown: ~82% chance on average, best at ~84%, challenging at ~80%.
South American Restaurant — ~80%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~82% across Downtown.
Opening a Mixed Martial Arts Studio in Downtown shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~79%.
Indonesian Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~81% average in Downtown. Best-case storefronts: ~83%. Challenging locations: ~80%.
Day Care Center is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Downtown: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~78%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Downtown

Syrian Restaurant — ~79%–~83% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across Downtown.
Opening a Dance Club in Downtown shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~78%.
Pet Store (Ranked #8): ~81% average in Downtown. Best-case storefronts: ~82%. Challenging locations: ~78%.
Bar is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Downtown: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~78%.
Pet Grooming Shop — ~78%–~83% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across Downtown.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

What you could earn opening a business in Downtown

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting a storefront that StreetSpring ranks in the top tier for your business type in Downtown could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~5% more than if you selected one of the worst locations.

How StreetSpring calculates location value

StreetSpring calculates survivability for each business type separately at each address — so the best location for your concept may differ from the neighborhood's overall top-ranked site.
The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
Every percentage point of Survivability Score represents a real difference in expected revenue — choosing the highest-scoring address is the most reliable financial decision you can make at the outset.
StreetSpring generates location-specific predictions tailored to your exact site.

Which business types are most underserved in Downtown?

The top businesses to open next in Downtown:

Hot Pot Restaurants — ~82% average survival rate, up to ~84% at best locations
South American Restaurants — ~82% average survival rate
Mixed Martial Arts Studios — ~81% average survival rate

These rankings are based on the latest available data; check StreetSpring for real-time updates. The model draws from 100+ location-specific factors to generate each survivability score. The survivability rankings for Downtown are grounded in real economic conditions: 96.5% employment and 17.5% vacancy are among the key inputs that separate high-scoring locations from low-scoring ones here. StreetSpring updates survivability scores for available locations weekly — check the live tool now to see which storefronts in Downtown are currently available and how they score.

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 Downtown.

What type of business should you rent your Downtown storefront to?

For landlords in Downtown, StreetSpring's 2026 analysis identifies Hot Pot Restaurants, South American Restaurants, and Mixed Martial Arts Studios as the business types most likely to produce stable, long-term tenancy.

The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
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 Downtown storefront to a Hot Pot Restaurant?

The data shows a Hot Pot Restaurant is the safest long-term bet for a Downtown storefront. Top locations reach ~84% survivability; the least favorable addresses in this neighborhood score around ~80%.

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

What should I consider when opening a business in Downtown?

Don't commit to a storefront in Downtown without first checking its Survivability Score — the difference between a 70% and a 90% score at two addresses on the same block can determine your long-term outcome.

The Revenue Capture Score at a specific address explains more about likely business success than any other available metric.
These insights come from StreetSpring's exclusive, in-house forecasting models.
You can access the most up-to-date forecasts with StreetSpring for free.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

Our analysis covers businesses serving more than 180 million+ Americans across 24 major US metros. Aggregated survivability rankings for Boston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Permits, licensing, and zoning specifics worth flagging

Area to check	What can go wrong	How to de-risk it
Outdoor seating / sidewalk use	Signing assuming you can add patio seating, then learning the city requires a separate sidewalk-cafe permit with long lead times.	Check the city's sidewalk-cafe permit process up front. Confirm landlord allows outdoor build-out in the lease language.
CAM + hidden costs	Stated rent looks great, then CAM fees, signage charges, and after-hours utilities add 15-30%.	Get the full operating expense breakdown for the past 2 years. Ask which costs are landlord-capped vs. uncapped.
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.

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

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in Downtown, Boston — Top business types scored in Downtown, 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 (Downtown):** Median 1-mile workplace jobs around Downtown grid points: **17,798** (LEHD LODES 2022). That works out to a **3.5:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** — a worker-heavy mixed-use signal. Of those workplace jobs, **1,097** are retail-sector. Use this to gauge whether your concept is weekday-commuter-driven or evening-and-weekend-driven.

Landmark anchor: Tsongas Industrial History Center sits in Downtown as a history-museum anchor — the kind of cultural draw that shapes weekend foot-traffic patterns nearby.

**Local economic context (Downtown, Boston):** Downtown's ACS unemployment rate is **3.5%** (below the 24-metro neighborhood median). County-level data adds two more anchors: BLS QCEW reports Boston-area average weekly wage of **$1,631** (above our 24-metro median), and the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey logged **2,338** new residential units in Suffolk County in 2025 — a rough proxy for the local growth environment a new business is opening into.

Related Resources

Related:

Business Survivability in Adair Park, Atlanta

Beyond the Numbers: Local Context

Additional questions with answers drawn directly from local data sources.

How does the median age in Downtown compare to the Boston metro?

Downtown's median age is 45 versus a Boston metro median of 41 — older by 4 years. This shapes which business types tend to survive: An older profile tends to favor healthcare, professional services, and family-oriented retail over nightlife.

Does ownership stability in Downtown support steady local spending?

Home ownership in Downtown is approximately 42%, 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.

Is Downtown a high-employment or high-unemployment area?

ACS labor-force data shows an employment rate of about 96% in Downtown, versus 96% across Boston. Employment is close to the metro median, suggesting stable underlying demand.

Does Downtown's poverty rate signal lower retail spending?

ACS data shows 7% of Downtown residents below the federal poverty line, versus 8% metro-wide. The poverty rate tracks the metro median; business-type fit depends more on competition and demographic specifics.