How much money could a business in East Pilsen make?

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

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

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 East Pilsen maximize success.

What businesses are most in demand in East Pilsen?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in East Pilsen are Indonesian Restaurants, American Restaurants, and Filipino Restaurants.

What are the best businesses to open in East Pilsen?

The top businesses to open in East Pilsen include Indonesian Restaurant with a ~88% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~90%, followed by American Restaurant and Filipino Restaurant.

Business Survivability in East Pilsen, Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in East Pilsen is an Indonesian Restaurant with a ~88% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: an Indonesian Restaurant in East Pilsen (~88% average survival rate, ~90% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #71 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago

Neighborhood average: ~79% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed and updated: May 12, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is East Pilsen 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 East Pilsen is an Indonesian Restaurant with a ~88% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~90% chance; next is an American Restaurant with a ~88% chance, followed by a Filipino Restaurant with a ~87% chance.

Is East Pilsen a good place to start a business?

**How East Pilsen compares:** East Pilsen's profile most resembles **Rosewood Baker (Los Angeles)** and **Country Club (Miami)** based on the demographic and density signatures we use to model location quality — all three share longer commutes. Patterns from those neighborhoods are directly relevant for businesses evaluating East Pilsen.

**Failure pattern in East Pilsen.** Across the 93 business subtypes we track here, the strongest is **Indonesian Restaurant** at 88% average survivability — but the best and worst sites for this subtype within East Pilsen span **72% to 96%**, a 24-point gap. **The dominant failure mode in East Pilsen isn't subtype choice — it's site selection within the neighborhood.** Saturation context: Gyms are the most-concentrated tracked subtype in the area, with 7 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

Across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago, StreetSpring's data places East Pilsen at #71 with a ~79% average Survivability Score.

The top business types in East Pilsen, when placed at their ideal addresses, achieve survivability rates ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.
However, those same business types at the weakest addresses in East Pilsen can score considerably below average. Even the most in-demand concept in East Pilsen will struggle if it opens at the wrong address.
The 8.8% commercial vacancy rate in East Pilsen is a leading indicator of the neighborhood's business health; StreetSpring factors this directly into each business type's survivability score.

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

How to choose a specific location in East Pilsen

StreetSpring scores survivability at the exact address level in East Pilsen — so you can compare two storefronts on the same block before committing to a lease. According to StreetSpring's 2026 data, this is the optimal address for an Indonesian Restaurant in East Pilsen:

Why the right block matters more than the right neighborhood

Loading live map preview...

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of 100 location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for an Indonesian Restaurant in East Pilsen. For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. Factors evaluated include competition at every distance band, consumer spending forecasts, mobility patterns, and market share projections.

Check if this location is still available →

The strongest business categories for East Pilsen

#1-5: Highest Survivability in East Pilsen

Indonesian Restaurant (Ranked #1): ~88% average in East Pilsen. Best-case storefronts: ~90%. Challenging locations: ~87%.
American Restaurant is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in East Pilsen: ~88% chance on average, best at ~89%, challenging at ~86%.
Filipino Restaurant — ~86%–~89% survivability range, with an average of ~87% across East Pilsen.
Opening a Kosher Restaurant in East Pilsen shows ~87% average survivability. Top locations reach ~89%; lower-end sites show ~85%.
Ukrainian Restaurant (Ranked #5): ~87% average in East Pilsen. Best-case storefronts: ~90%. Challenging locations: ~85%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in East Pilsen

African Restaurant is ranked #6 for top businesses to open in East Pilsen: ~87% chance on average, best at ~88%, challenging at ~86%.
Salad Shop — ~85%–~89% survivability range, with an average of ~87% across East Pilsen.
Opening a Diner in East Pilsen shows ~87% average survivability. Top locations reach ~89%; lower-end sites show ~85%.
French Restaurant (Ranked #9): ~87% average in East Pilsen. Best-case storefronts: ~89%. Challenging locations: ~85%.
Brunch Restaurant is ranked #10 for top businesses to open in East Pilsen: ~87% chance on average, best at ~89%, challenging at ~85%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

American Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →
Filipino Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →

What revenue can a East Pilsen business expect?

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, picking the highest-scoring storefront in the neighborhood in East Pilsen 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

Site selection requires evaluating the specific combination of your business type and the exact address — neighborhood-level data is only the starting point.
Location is the single strongest predictor of whether a business thrives or fails.
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.
Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for over 700 business types at any given storefront.

What East Pilsen needs more of (per our model)

The top businesses to open next in East Pilsen:

Indonesian Restaurants — ~88% average survival rate, up to ~90% at best locations
American Restaurants — ~88% average survival rate
Filipino Restaurants — ~87% average survival rate

For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. Our training data spans 130+ business types across 24 major metros, giving our models the breadth to predict outcomes across nearly any commercial concept. A 8.8% vacancy rate in East Pilsen reflects the current commercial environment; StreetSpring weights this directly in every survivability score for addresses in this neighborhood. StreetSpring updates survivability scores for available locations weekly — check the live tool now to see which storefronts in East Pilsen are currently available and how they score.

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 East Pilsen.

What type of business should you rent your East Pilsen storefront to?

Our 2026 survivability data for East Pilsen shows that Indonesian Restaurants, American Restaurants, and Filipino Restaurants rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.

Location is the single strongest predictor of whether a business thrives or fails.
Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for over 700 business types at any given storefront. StreetSpring's free tool lets you check the survivability score for any business type at any address in East Pilsen — a powerful filter when evaluating prospective tenants.

Should you rent your East Pilsen storefront to an Indonesian Restaurant?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, an Indonesian Restaurant ranks as the top tenant type for your East Pilsen storefront — best-case locations show a ~90% survival rate, while the most challenging addresses drop to ~87%.

Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for over 700 business types at any given storefront.

What should I consider when opening a business in East Pilsen?

When evaluating potential locations in East Pilsen, start with the Survivability Score. It accounts for competition, spending, mobility, and market share in a single figure.

The Revenue Capture Score at a specific address explains more about likely business success than any other available metric.
Each forecast is specific to the exact address and business type, generated by StreetSpring's internally developed prediction engine.
StreetSpring is free to use — see the current survivability score for any address in East Pilsen 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.

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.
Permitted hours	Late-night or early-morning ops blocked by zoning, neighborhood association, or shared-wall restrictions.	Confirm the permitted hours-of-operation are in your lease AND in the local code. Pull recent variances or complaints from the zoning portal.
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.

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.

How we measure this: Foot traffic measured at the city-block level using a combination of pedestrian-network analysis and Walk Score.

**Worker-to-resident ratio (East Pilsen):** LEHD daytime population data gives East Pilsen a **6.6-to-1 worker/resident ratio** (a strong commercial-corridor / CBD signal). Median 1-mile workplace jobs: **20,134**; retail share within that: **2,592**. Worker-heavy neighborhoods skew demand toward weekday-business-hours; resident-heavy neighborhoods skew toward evenings and weekends.

Landmark anchor: Children's Museum of Art and Social Justice is East Pilsen's museum landmark, shaping weekend visitor traffic for nearby storefronts.

**Three local anchors for East Pilsen:** **5.0%** neighborhood unemployment (in line with the 24-metro median, ACS), **$1,198/week** average wage in the Chicago area (below our metro median, BLS QCEW), and **5,308** new residential units permitted in Cook County in 2025 (Census BPS). These three together describe the demand-and-labor environment any new East Pilsen business operates within.

**BLS sector context:** Across the 11 industries StreetSpring tracks, 5-year survival rates from BLS Business Employment Dynamics, March 2025 release range from **47.8%** (Active Life — gyms, studios) to **61.8%** (Health & Medical). Restaurants — the largest single category in our corpus — average **50.0%** nationally, and retail averages **47.9%**.

Related Resources

Related:

Local Context FAQ

More questions answered with neighborhood-specific data from our 2026 corpus.

What's the national survival baseline for businesses by sector?

BLS publishes 5-year cohort survival rates by industry. For sectors StreetSpring covers, the range is 47.8-61.8% — Active Life low, Health & Medical high, Restaurants and Retail in the middle around 47.9-50%. Location-specific factors drive most of the variance around these baselines.

Does ownership stability in East Pilsen support steady local spending?

34% of East Pilsen households own their home, against 45% across the Chicago metro. A higher renter share often means more population turnover; quick-service food, fitness, and convenience tend to do well in such environments.

What's the local customer base size in East Pilsen?

Approximately 3.1K people live in East Pilsen, which puts it in the smaller-population tier among Chicago neighborhoods. A smaller resident base means destination-pull or commuter capture matters more than walk-in traffic alone.