What businesses are most in demand in Downtown?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Downtown are Ukrainian Restaurants, Kosher Restaurants, and Singaporean Restaurants.

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 ~3% more than selecting an average location, and ~5% more than one of the worst locations.

Business Survivability in Downtown, Chicago

Q: How does income in Downtown compare to the rest of Chicago?

Downtown's median household income (~$106K) is above the Chicago metro median (~$103K) by approximately $3K. Income is close to the metro median, so business-type fit depends more on local demographics and competition.

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Downtown is an Ukrainian Restaurant 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: an Ukrainian Restaurant in Downtown (~84% average survival rate, ~86% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #84 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago

Neighborhood average: ~75% 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 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 ~84% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~86% chance; next is a Kosher Restaurant with a ~84% chance, followed by a Singaporean Restaurant with a ~84% chance.

Is Downtown a good place to start a business?

**Pattern match:** Downtown's neighborhood signature — captured across demographic, employment, and amenity features — most closely matches **Mesa Madrid (Phoenix)** and **Prospect Park (Minneapolis)**. The three share younger population, shorter commutes, and few nearby parks, which helps explain why business types that succeed in those areas tend to translate to Downtown.

**The pattern in Downtown.** Of 93 tracked subtypes, Kosher Restaurant leads at **84% average survivability** — yet within the neighborhood, sites for this subtype range **76-95%** (19-point spread). That spread is the real failure surface: pick the wrong block in Downtown and a top-subtype play still scores in the bottom quartile. Meanwhile Mental Health Clinics are already saturated here — 3 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

StreetSpring ranks Downtown #84 among all analyzed neighborhoods in and around Chicago, with a neighborhood-wide average survivability of ~75%.

Top-performing business types at the best addresses in Downtown show a ~3% survival rate advantage over the neighborhood average.
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.
With a 89.7% employment rate, Downtown has the consumer spending foundation that supports a range of brick-and-mortar business types.

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

Where in Downtown should you open a business?

Rather than relying on neighborhood averages, StreetSpring's scoring tells you which specific addresses in Downtown give your concept the best odds of survival. Of all available storefronts analyzed in Downtown, StreetSpring ranks this area highest for an Ukrainian Restaurant in 2026:

Reading visibility, frontage, and parking carefully

Loading live map preview...

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, this circle covers the best storefront area for an Ukrainian Restaurant in Downtown. Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform — and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. 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 Downtown?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Downtown

Ukrainian Restaurant is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Downtown: ~84% chance on average, best at ~86%, challenging at ~82%.
Kosher Restaurant — ~82%–~86% survivability range, with an average of ~84% across Downtown.
Opening a Singaporean Restaurant in Downtown shows ~84% average survivability. Top locations reach ~86%; lower-end sites show ~82%.
Italian Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~84% average in Downtown. Best-case storefronts: ~85%. Challenging locations: ~82%.
American Restaurant is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Downtown: ~83% chance on average, best at ~85%, challenging at ~81%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Downtown

Filipino Restaurant — ~81%–~85% survivability range, with an average of ~83% across Downtown.
Opening a Chicken Shop in Downtown shows ~83% average survivability. Top locations reach ~85%; lower-end sites show ~81%.
Bangladeshi Restaurant (Ranked #8): ~83% average in Downtown. Best-case storefronts: ~85%. Challenging locations: ~81%.
South American Restaurant is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Downtown: ~83% chance on average, best at ~85%, challenging at ~81%.
Brunch Restaurant — ~81%–~85% survivability range, with an average of ~83% 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, following the survivability data rather than relying on intuition or foot traffic estimates 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

No two business types have identical location needs; survivability scores reflect these differences at the address level.
Location is the biggest factor in a business's future success.
Choosing locations with superior Survivability Scores directly correlates with higher revenue potential.
Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually.

What Downtown needs more of (per our model)

The top businesses to open next in Downtown:

Ukrainian Restaurants — ~84% average survival rate, up to ~86% at best locations
Kosher Restaurants — ~84% average survival rate
Singaporean Restaurants — ~84% average survival rate

Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform — and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. Our models are built using machine learning trained on millions of commercial real estate data points. Downtown sits at 89.7% employment and 11.9% commercial vacancy — conditions that set the ceiling and floor for Revenue Capture potential across all business types here. StreetSpring refreshes survivability scores every week to reflect new competition and updated spending data — see which locations in Downtown are available right now and how they rank.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

Related Articles:

See the Chicago Business Survivability Rankings
See the Chicago 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?

According to StreetSpring's 2026 data, the strongest tenant types for a storefront in Downtown are Ukrainian Restaurants, Kosher Restaurants, and Singaporean Restaurants.

Location is the biggest factor in a business's future success.
Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually. 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 Downtown storefront to an Ukrainian Restaurant?

Yes — our 2026 model places an Ukrainian Restaurant at the top of the survivability rankings for Downtown storefronts, with a best-case score of ~86% and a floor of ~82% at the most challenging addresses.

Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually.

What should I consider when opening a business in Downtown?

When selecting a location in Downtown it is crucial to select a location with a very high Survivability Score.

StreetSpring's analysis consistently shows Revenue Capture Score predicts survival odds more accurately than demographic data or foot traffic estimates alone.
StreetSpring's custom-built forecasting infrastructure powers every survivability score, combining data science with commercial real estate intelligence.
Access StreetSpring's current survivability data for any address in Downtown for free at any time.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring analyzes millions of data points with AI to forecast business survivability. Aggregated survivability rankings for Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

The hidden costs of operating in this neighborhood

Consideration	Common pitfall	What to verify before signing
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.
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.
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.

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.

Visual Data

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

Treemap of Chicago business mix by survivability score — Treemap of business mix in Chicago — cell size = number of locations, color = average survivability score.

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in Downtown, Chicago — Top business types scored in Downtown, Chicago — 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).

**Daytime worker density (Downtown):** LEHD LODES Workplace Area Characteristics show a **3.3:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** for Downtown — a worker-heavy mixed-use signal. Median workplace jobs within a 1-mile radius across Downtown: **25,904**, of which roughly **996** are retail-sector. Higher daytime ratios favor weekday-lunch / commuter-traffic businesses; balanced ratios favor residential + weekend demand patterns.

Landmark anchor: Center for Women's History and Leadership sits in Downtown as a history-museum anchor — the kind of cultural draw that shapes weekend foot-traffic patterns nearby.

**Downtown economic snapshot:** ACS reports neighborhood unemployment at **10.3%** (above the 24-metro neighborhood median we track). The Chicago metro's BLS QCEW average weekly wage is **$1,198** (below our metro median), and the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey logged **5,308** new residential permits in Cook County in 2025 — useful triangulation for population-growth and labor-cost assumptions in this neighborhood.

**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

Related:

Business Survivability in Adair Park, Atlanta

Local Context FAQ

Additional questions with answers drawn directly from local data sources.

How does Downtown's employment rate affect business survivability?

Roughly 90% of Downtown's working-age population is employed, against a Chicago metro median of 94%. Below-average employment can constrain discretionary spending — value-oriented and essential services tend to fare better.

How does income in Downtown compare to the rest of Chicago?

Downtown's median household income (~~$106K) is above the Chicago metro median (~~$103K) by approximately $3K. Income is close to the metro median, so business-type fit depends more on local demographics and competition.

Are storefronts and homes filling up or sitting empty in Downtown?

Downtown's housing vacancy rate is roughly 12%, compared to 8% across the Chicago metro. Elevated vacancy can mean softening demand or short-term opportunity to negotiate rent — verify against commercial-corridor activity before committing.