Business Survivability in Downtown, Chicago
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Downtown is an Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~80% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.
Quick Summary
- Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
- Best business: an Ukrainian Restaurant in Downtown (~80% average survival rate, ~84% at best locations)
- Neighborhood rank: #84 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago
- Neighborhood average: ~78% two-year survival across all business types
- Coverage: This ranking carries one row per business type and neighborhood. Its score is the projected chance of lasting two or more years, averaged across the price points StreetSpring scores separately in the tool (most types have 5). The 10 business types here are base types; the tool offers 500+ business types, counting each type at each of its price points.
- Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data
- Detailed methodology
Last reviewed: September 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
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 an Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~80% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~84% chance; next is a Kosher Restaurant with a 79.88% chance, followed by a Singaporean Restaurant with a 79.85% chance.
Is Downtown a good place to start a business?
StreetSpring's analysis places Downtown at #84 in Chicago for new business survival odds, with a neighborhood-wide average of ~78%.
- The highest-scoring business types in Downtown — at their optimal addresses — outperform the neighborhood average by ~3%.
- Yet even the strongest business types in Downtown see survivability scores drop significantly at the worst addresses. No business type is immune to the consequences of poor location selection within this neighborhood.
- Commercial vacancy in Downtown sits at 11.9%, 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.
How can you find the best location to open a business in Downtown?
Rather than relying on neighborhood averages, StreetSpring's scoring tells you which specific addresses in Downtown give your concept the best odds of survival. Below is the best location for an Ukrainian Restaurant in Downtown:
This map shows the optimal location for an Ukrainian Restaurant in Downtown based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis. However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. The prediction model incorporates hundreds of location-specific factors, including competitive density, forecasted consumer spending, mobility patterns, and Revenue Capture Score.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Downtown?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting 2+ years |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ukrainian Restaurant | 80.06% |
| 2 | Kosher Restaurant | 79.88% |
| 3 | Singaporean Restaurant | 79.85% |
| 4 | Italian Restaurant | 79.78% |
| 5 | American Restaurant | 79.65% |
| 6 | Filipino Restaurant | 79.60% |
| 7 | Chicken Shop | 79.59% |
| 8 | Indonesian Restaurant | 79.50% |
| 9 | South American Restaurant | 79.48% |
| 10 | Deli | 79.45% |
#1-5: Highest Survivability in Downtown
- Ukrainian Restaurant is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Downtown: 80.06% chance on average, best at ~84%, challenging at ~76%.
- Kosher Restaurant — ~76%–~84% survivability range, with an average of 79.88% across Downtown.
- Opening a Singaporean Restaurant in Downtown shows 79.85% average survivability. Top locations reach ~84%; lower-end sites show ~74%.
- Italian Restaurant (Ranked #4): 79.78% average in Downtown. Best-case storefronts: ~84%. Challenging locations: ~74%.
- American Restaurant is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Downtown: 79.65% chance on average, best at ~84%, challenging at ~75%.
#6-10: Strong Performers in Downtown
- Filipino Restaurant — ~74%–~84% survivability range, with an average of 79.60% across Downtown.
- Opening a Chicken Shop in Downtown shows 79.59% average survivability. Top locations reach ~85%; lower-end sites show ~75%.
- Indonesian Restaurant (Ranked #8): 79.50% average in Downtown. Best-case storefronts: ~84%. Challenging locations: ~74%.
- South American Restaurant is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Downtown: 79.48% chance on average, best at ~84%, challenging at ~74%.
- Deli — ~74%–~84% survivability range, with an average of 79.45% across Downtown.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Ukrainian Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →
- Kosher Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →
- Singaporean Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Downtown make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, picking the highest-scoring storefront in the neighborhood in Downtown could lead to you making ~3% 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
- The right address for one business type may be the wrong one for another — always evaluate fit for your specific concept.
- A great product in the wrong location will underperform; an average product in the right location can thrive.
- StreetSpring's analysis shows that businesses in top-scoring locations generate meaningfully more revenue and stay open longer than those in average locations.
- StreetSpring gives you a precise survivability probability for any specific address and business type combination, not a generalized estimate.
What businesses should open next in Downtown?
The top businesses to open next in Downtown:
- Ukrainian Restaurants — 80% on average and 84% at the best address
- Kosher Restaurants — 79.88% average survival rate
- Singaporean Restaurants — 79.85% average survival rate
However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. Every prediction draws on a dataset of millions of business openings, closures, and lifecycle events across the U.S. StreetSpring's model accounts for Downtown's 89.7% employment rate when projecting survivability — businesses reliant on discretionary spend benefit disproportionately in well-employed neighborhoods. Survivability scores are live, not static — StreetSpring updates them weekly. Visit the tool to see what's currently available in Downtown and how each address is scoring right now. StreetSpring scores 500+ business types: 153 base business types, most of them at 5 price points, which is 569 type-and-price combinations you can choose in the tool.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Chicago Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Chicago Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Ukrainian Restaurant survivability across Chicago neighborhoods
Visual Data
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?
StreetSpring's 2026 model places Ukrainian Restaurants, Kosher Restaurants, and Singaporean Restaurants at the top of the survivability rankings for Downtown — 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 gives you a precise survivability probability for any specific address and business type combination, not a generalized estimate. With StreetSpring, you can rank every potential tenant type by survivability score at your property address before committing to a lease.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Chicago Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Downtown storefront to an Ukrainian Restaurant?
StreetSpring's data confirms an Ukrainian Restaurant as the highest-survivability tenant type for Downtown. The best addresses show a ~84% chance of lasting more than 2 years; less optimal addresses score around ~76%.
- StreetSpring gives you a precise survivability probability for any specific address and business type combination, not a generalized estimate.
What should I consider when opening a business in Downtown?
Among all the criteria to weigh when opening a business in Downtown, Survivability Score carries the most predictive weight — choose the address with the highest score your budget allows.
- Where survivability is highest, Revenue Capture Score is invariably strong — the two are tightly correlated across every business type we've analyzed.
- StreetSpring uses its own proprietary forecasting tools to identify the Revenue Capture Score for each unique business.
- StreetSpring is free to use — see the current survivability score for any address in Downtown 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 Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Chicago: /resources/data/chicago-survivability-scores-2026.csv — includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.