What businesses are most in demand in North Dorchester?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in North Dorchester are Watch & Repair Shops, French Restaurants, and Ukrainian Restaurants.

How much money could a business in North Dorchester make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in North Dorchester could lead to making ~3% more than selecting an average location, and ~7% more than one of the worst locations.

Is North Dorchester a good place to start a business?

North Dorchester is ranked number 74 across neighborhoods in and around Boston to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~75%. Choosing an optimal address for the highest-ranked business types in North Dorchester can produce survivability scores up to ~3% above the neighborhood mean.

Business Survivability in North Dorchester, Boston

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Watch Store or Repair Shop in North Dorchester (~81% average survival rate, ~83% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #74 across all neighborhoods in and around Boston

Neighborhood average: ~75% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed and updated: April 28, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is North Dorchester 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 North Dorchester is a Watch Store or Repair Shop with a ~81% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~83% chance; next is a French Restaurant with a ~81% chance, followed by an Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~81% chance.

Should you open a business in North Dorchester?

**Where else does North Dorchester look like?** The strongest demographic and amenity-density matches are **Acorn (San Francisco)** and **Edgewood (Washington DC)**, sharing more transit-reliant, more renters, and white-collar job mix. If you've worked in either of those neighborhoods, expect North Dorchester to behave similarly on the dimensions that drive survival.

**What goes wrong in North Dorchester.** Across 93 subtypes we track, **French Restaurant averages 81%** — the highest in the neighborhood. Yet a site-level look shows French Restaurants range from **72% to 89%** across North Dorchester — a 17-point window where the address, not the concept, decides the outcome. For competitive density: Hair Salons are the most-concentrated tracked subtype (30 within 0.5 miles).

Out of all neighborhoods analyzed in and around Boston, North Dorchester ranks #74 for business survivability with a ~75% average Survivability Score.

Choosing an optimal address for the highest-ranked business types in North Dorchester can produce survivability scores up to ~3% above the neighborhood mean.
Yet even the strongest business types in North Dorchester see survivability scores drop significantly at the worst addresses. No business type is immune to the consequences of poor location selection within this neighborhood.
North Dorchester's 7.9% commercial vacancy rate signals the current availability of storefronts and shapes the competitive environment that survivability scores reflect.

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

Pinpointing the best locations within North Dorchester

StreetSpring's North Dorchester data goes block by block — not just neighborhood averages — so you know which specific storefront gives your concept the strongest foundation. Below is the best location for a Watch Store or Repair Shop in North Dorchester:

Walking the neighborhood: what to look for

Loading live map preview...

StreetSpring's 2026 survivability data flags this circle as the prime block for a Watch Store or Repair Shop in North Dorchester. These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. StreetSpring's prediction model analyzes 100 factors across competition, spending on the specific potential business, projected revenue, projected market share, Revenue Capture Score, mobility patterns, and many more.

Check if this location is still available →

What are the best businesses to open in North Dorchester?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in North Dorchester

Watch Store or Repair Shop is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in North Dorchester: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~78%.
French Restaurant — ~79%–~82% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across North Dorchester.
Opening an Ukrainian Restaurant in North Dorchester shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~78%.
Pet Grooming Shop (Ranked #4): ~80% average in North Dorchester. Best-case storefronts: ~82%. Challenging locations: ~78%.
Pet Boarding Facility is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in North Dorchester: ~80% chance on average, best at ~82%, challenging at ~78%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in North Dorchester

Mexican Restaurant — ~78%–~82% survivability range, with an average of ~80% across North Dorchester.
Opening a Salad Shop in North Dorchester shows ~80% average survivability. Top locations reach ~81%; lower-end sites show ~78%.
Filipino Restaurant (Ranked #8): ~80% average in North Dorchester. Best-case storefronts: ~81%. Challenging locations: ~78%.
Kosher Restaurant is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in North Dorchester: ~80% chance on average, best at ~82%, challenging at ~78%.
Laundromat — ~77%–~81% survivability range, with an average of ~79% across North Dorchester.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

What you could earn opening a business in North Dorchester

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing an address that maximizes your Revenue Capture Score in North Dorchester could lead to you making ~3% more than if you selected an average location, and ~7% more than if you selected one of the worst locations.

How StreetSpring calculates location value

Site selection requires evaluating the specific combination of your business type and the exact address — neighborhood-level data is only the starting point.
Where you open matters more than anything else.
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's precision goes beyond the neighborhood — it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category.

Where the next great business in North Dorchester should go

The top businesses to open next in North Dorchester:

Watch & Repair Shops — ~81% average survival rate, up to ~83% at best locations
French Restaurants — ~81% average survival rate
Ukrainian Restaurants — ~81% average survival rate

These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. We apply advanced machine learning to one of the largest commercial real estate outcome datasets in the country. North Dorchester's combination of 92.7% employment and 7.9% vacancy creates the conditions that define which business types thrive here and which struggle. These rankings are a snapshot; StreetSpring recalculates survivability for every location in North Dorchester weekly, incorporating the latest competitive openings, closures, and spending data — check current locations 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 North Dorchester.

What type of business should you rent your North Dorchester storefront to?

Our 2026 survivability data for North Dorchester shows that Watch & Repair Shops, French Restaurants, and Ukrainian Restaurants rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.

Where you open matters more than anything else.
StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood — it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category. Landlords can use StreetSpring to match their exact address to the tenant types most likely to stay open and paying rent for 2+ years.

Should you rent your North Dorchester storefront to a Watch Store or Repair Shop?

Yes. Among all business types analyzed for North Dorchester in 2026, a Watch Store or Repair Shop posts the highest survivability ceiling at ~83% and maintains a reasonable floor of ~78% — making it the most reliable tenant choice here.

StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood — it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category.

What should I consider when opening a business in North Dorchester?

StreetSpring's Survivability Score for your North Dorchester address is the clearest forward-looking indicator of whether your business will be operating two years from now — make it the first number you check.

Of all the variables StreetSpring analyzes, Revenue Capture Score has the strongest predictive power.
Each forecast is specific to the exact address and business type, generated by StreetSpring's internally developed prediction engine.
StreetSpring's live survivability scores are available for free — check your specific address now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

Powered by machine learning models trained on real business outcomes, StreetSpring delivers actionable insights. Aggregated survivability rankings for Boston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Permits, licensing, and zoning specifics worth flagging

Factor	Where new owners get tripped up	Questions to ask before you sign
Parking & visibility	Storefront looks great from the sidewalk but is invisible from the road.	Drive past at 30 mph from both directions. Count street parking + nearest paid lot capacity at peak hours.
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.
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 North Dorchester, Boston — Top business types scored in North Dorchester, Boston — each axis is a subtype, taller = stronger survival rate.

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.

**Daytime worker density (North Dorchester):** LEHD LODES Workplace Area Characteristics show a **0.4:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** for North Dorchester — a primarily-residential signal with some daytime worker pull. Median workplace jobs within a 1-mile radius across North Dorchester: **17,291**, of which roughly **2,138** are retail-sector. Higher daytime ratios favor weekday-lunch / commuter-traffic businesses; balanced ratios favor residential + weekend demand patterns.

Landmark anchor: Dorchester Historical Society sits in North Dorchester as a history-museum anchor — the kind of cultural draw that shapes weekend foot-traffic patterns nearby.

**Economic context that bounds the demand environment in North Dorchester:** Per ACS, neighborhood unemployment is **7.3%** (above 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:

Local Data Questions

Local-context questions, answered with neighborhood-specific numbers.

Is North Dorchester mostly renters or owners?

Home ownership in North Dorchester is approximately 31%, 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 North Dorchester's education level matter for picking a business type?

ACS data shows 43% of adults in North Dorchester with a bachelor's degree or higher, versus the metro median of 58%. Lower education attainment shifts demand toward value retail, services, and everyday needs.

Is North Dorchester's population younger or older than the Boston average?

North Dorchester's median age is 35 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.