Is Lakewood a good place to start a business?

Lakewood is ranked number 28 across neighborhoods in and around Charlotte to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~73%. Top-performing business types at the best addresses in Lakewood show a ~2% survival rate advantage over the neighborhood average.

What are the best businesses to open in Lakewood?

The top businesses to open in Lakewood include Deli with a ~84% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~85%, followed by Salad Shop and Kosher Restaurant.

What businesses are most in demand in Lakewood?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Lakewood are Delis, Salad Shops, and Kosher Restaurants.

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

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 Lakewood maximize success.

How much money could a business in Lakewood make?

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

Business Survivability in Lakewood, Charlotte

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Lakewood is a Deli with a ~84% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Deli in Lakewood (~84% average survival rate, ~85% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #28 across all neighborhoods in and around Charlotte

Neighborhood average: ~73% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed and updated: May 13, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is Lakewood 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 Lakewood is a Deli with a ~84% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~85% chance; next is a Salad Shop with a ~83% chance, followed by a Kosher Restaurant with a ~81% chance.

What does the data say about opening in Lakewood?

**Pattern match:** Lakewood's neighborhood signature — captured across demographic, employment, and amenity features — most closely matches **University Park (Charlotte)** and **Wilshire (San Antonio)**. The three share less college-educated, lower-income, and low high-earner share, which helps explain why business types that succeed in those areas tend to translate to Lakewood.

**The pattern in Lakewood.** Of 89 tracked subtypes, American Restaurant leads at **81% average survivability** — yet within the neighborhood, sites for this subtype range **78-85%** (7-point spread). That spread is the real failure surface: pick the wrong block in Lakewood and a top-subtype play still scores in the bottom quartile. Meanwhile Mental Health Clinics are already saturated here — 11 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

Across all neighborhoods in and around Charlotte, StreetSpring's data places Lakewood at #28 with a ~73% average Survivability Score.

Top-performing business types at the best addresses in Lakewood show a ~2% survival rate advantage over the neighborhood average.
Yet the same categories that score highest in Lakewood can underperform significantly at the wrong address. Location precision within the neighborhood matters as much as choosing the neighborhood itself.
Commercial vacancy in Lakewood sits at 10.9%, 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.

Pinpointing the best locations within Lakewood

Rather than relying on neighborhood averages, StreetSpring's scoring tells you which specific addresses in Lakewood give your concept the best odds of survival. The map below shows the highest-scoring storefront area for a Deli in Lakewood per 2026 data:

How to use our data when you tour spots

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StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for a Deli in Lakewood. Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform — and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. 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 →

Which business types have the highest survivability in Lakewood?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Lakewood

Deli is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Lakewood: ~84% chance on average, best at ~85%, challenging at ~82%.
Salad Shop — ~81%–~85% survivability range, with an average of ~83% across Lakewood.
Opening a Kosher Restaurant in Lakewood shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~79%.
American Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~81% average in Lakewood. Best-case storefronts: ~82%. Challenging locations: ~79%.
Italian Restaurant is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Lakewood: ~81% chance on average, best at ~82%, challenging at ~80%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Lakewood

Sri Lankan Restaurant — ~79%–~83% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across Lakewood.
Opening a Music Store in Lakewood shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~78%.
Laundromat (Ranked #8): ~81% average in Lakewood. Best-case storefronts: ~83%. Challenging locations: ~78%.
Day Care Center is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Lakewood: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~78%.
Armenian Restaurant — ~78%–~82% survivability range, with an average of ~80% across Lakewood.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

Deli — See how this compares to other cities →

What you could earn opening a business in Lakewood

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 Lakewood 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

However, each business concept should be evaluated for fit within each potential location.
A great product in the wrong location will underperform; an average product in the right location can thrive.
Businesses in high-scoring locations consistently outperform those in average or low-scoring sites.
StreetSpring generates location-specific predictions tailored to your exact site.

Where the next great business in Lakewood should go

The top businesses to open next in Lakewood:

Delis — ~84% average survival rate, up to ~85% at best locations
Salad Shops — ~83% average survival rate
Kosher Restaurants — ~81% average survival rate

Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform — and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. Our platform incorporates data from thousands of neighborhoods nationwide. Lakewood sits at 91.2% employment and 10.9% commercial vacancy — conditions that set the ceiling and floor for Revenue Capture potential across all business types here. Because market conditions shift constantly, StreetSpring updates every location's survivability score weekly — you can see current scores for available storefronts in Lakewood right now.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

Related Articles:

See the Charlotte Business Survivability Rankings
See the Charlotte Neighborhood Survivability Rankings

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

StreetSpring's 2026 model places Delis, Salad Shops, and Kosher Restaurants at the top of the survivability rankings for Lakewood — making them the safest long-term tenant bets for landlords here.

A great product in the wrong location will underperform; an average product in the right location can thrive.
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 Lakewood storefront to a Deli?

The data shows a Deli is the safest long-term bet for a Lakewood storefront. Top locations reach ~85% survivability; the least favorable addresses in this neighborhood score around ~82%.

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

What should I consider when opening a business in Lakewood?

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

High Revenue Capture Score is the clearest signal that a location can sustain a business over the long term.
StreetSpring's in-house models are continuously updated with new business outcome data to keep predictions accurate.
StreetSpring offers free access to its survivability scores — see how your shortlisted Lakewood addresses rank right now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

Using predictive analytics, StreetSpring helps entrepreneurs and landlords make smarter location decisions. Aggregated survivability rankings for Charlotte 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
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.
Workforce availability	Hiring radius is smaller than you think — many neighborhoods can't staff a full team at standard wages.	Pull BLS wage data for your industry in this metro. Walk through your staffing plan with a local restaurant/retail operator before signing.
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 Charlotte: /resources/data/charlotte-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 Charlotte by survivability score and location density — Every business subtype in Charlotte plotted by score vs location count — bubble size shows market depth.

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

How we measure this: Our gradient-boosted survivability model has 100+ input features. The waterfall shows the top 6-8 contributors to a final score.

**Daytime worker density (Lakewood):** LEHD LODES Workplace Area Characteristics show a **0.1:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** for Lakewood — a primarily-residential neighborhood with minimal daytime worker traffic. Median workplace jobs within a 1-mile radius across Lakewood: **2,279**, of which roughly **186** are retail-sector. Higher daytime ratios favor weekday-lunch / commuter-traffic businesses; balanced ratios favor residential + weekend demand patterns.

Landmark anchor: Star Faith Ministries is the most-prominent named landmark in Lakewood — a Sunday and weekend-traffic anchor for the surrounding blocks.

**Local economic context (Lakewood, Charlotte):** Lakewood's ACS unemployment rate is **8.8%** (above the 24-metro neighborhood median). County-level data adds two more anchors: BLS QCEW reports Charlotte-area average weekly wage of **$1,183** (below our 24-metro median), and the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey logged **7,496** new residential units in Mecklenburg County in 2025 — a rough proxy for the local growth environment a new business is opening into.

**National benchmark:** Per BLS Business Employment Dynamics (March 2025), 5-year survival rates for StreetSpring's tracked industries span **47.8-61.8%**. Restaurants — the most-studied of these — survive at **50.0%** nationally, not the often-cited "80% fail" myth. The real risk premium is at the location level, which is what StreetSpring's model isolates.

Related Resources

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