What are the best businesses to open in Printers Row?

The top businesses to open in Printers Row include Filipino Restaurant with a ~90% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~91%, followed by Italian Restaurant and Singaporean Restaurant.

What businesses are most in demand in Printers Row?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Printers Row are Filipino Restaurants, Italian Restaurants, and Singaporean Restaurants.

Business Survivability in Printers Row, Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Printers Row is a Filipino Restaurant with a ~90% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Filipino Restaurant in Printers Row (~90% average survival rate, ~91% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #26 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago

Neighborhood average: ~83% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed: May 13, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder

In this article:

Summary
Is Printers Row 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 Printers Row is a Filipino Restaurant with a ~90% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~91% chance; next is an Italian Restaurant with a ~90% chance, followed by a Singaporean Restaurant with a ~90% chance.

Is Printers Row a good place to start a business?

**Pattern match:** Printers Row's neighborhood signature — captured across demographic, employment, and amenity features — most closely matches **San Diego (San Diego)** and **Hampton Place (Dallas)**. The three share low destination density, few nearby parks, and high high-earner share, which helps explain why business types that succeed in those areas tend to translate to Printers Row.

**The pattern in Printers Row.** Of 93 tracked subtypes, Italian Restaurant leads at **90% average survivability** — yet within the neighborhood, sites for this subtype range **85-94%** (9-point spread). That spread is the real failure surface: pick the wrong block in Printers Row and a top-subtype play still scores in the bottom quartile. Meanwhile American Restaurants are already saturated here — 1 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

Out of all neighborhoods analyzed in and around Chicago, Printers Row ranks #26 for business survivability with a ~83% average Survivability Score.

The highest-scoring business types in Printers Row — at their optimal addresses — outperform the neighborhood average by ~2%.
However, those same business types at the weakest addresses in Printers Row can score considerably below average. Even the most in-demand concept in Printers Row will struggle if it opens at the wrong address.
Printers Row's employment rate of 94.0% and commercial vacancy of 8.6% are two of the inputs StreetSpring's model uses to differentiate survivability within this neighborhood.

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

How to choose a specific location in Printers Row

Rather than relying on neighborhood averages, StreetSpring's scoring tells you which specific addresses in Printers Row give your concept the best odds of survival. The location below represents the address in Printers Row with the highest projected survivability for a Filipino Restaurant:

Why the right block matters more than the right neighborhood

Loading live map preview...

The 2026 model from StreetSpring places the strongest storefronts inside this circle for a Filipino Restaurant in Printers Row. Static rankings can't capture every recent change in competition or foot traffic; StreetSpring's live platform provides the current score for your exact address. 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 →

Which business types have the highest survivability in Printers Row?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Printers Row

Filipino Restaurant (Ranked #1): ~90% average in Printers Row. Best-case storefronts: ~91%. Challenging locations: ~88%.
Italian Restaurant is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Printers Row: ~90% chance on average, best at ~91%, challenging at ~88%.
Singaporean Restaurant — ~88%–~92% survivability range, with an average of ~90% across Printers Row.
Opening an American Restaurant in Printers Row shows ~89% average survivability. Top locations reach ~91%; lower-end sites show ~88%.
Indian Restaurant (Ranked #5): ~89% average in Printers Row. Best-case storefronts: ~92%. Challenging locations: ~87%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Printers Row

Bangladeshi Restaurant is ranked #6 for top businesses to open in Printers Row: ~89% chance on average, best at ~92%, challenging at ~88%.
South American Restaurant — ~88%–~91% survivability range, with an average of ~89% across Printers Row.
Opening a Brunch Restaurant in Printers Row shows ~89% average survivability. Top locations reach ~92%; lower-end sites show ~87%.
Deli (Ranked #9): ~89% average in Printers Row. Best-case storefronts: ~91%. Challenging locations: ~88%.
Taiwanese Restaurant is ranked #10 for top businesses to open in Printers Row: ~89% chance on average, best at ~91%, challenging at ~88%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

Filipino Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →

How much money could a business in Printers Row make?

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, prioritizing survivability score in your site-selection process in Printers Row 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.
The address you choose determines your competitive exposure, customer flow, and spending potential simultaneously.
The businesses that outperform their category averages most consistently are those that scored highest on survivability before opening.
StreetSpring provides address-specific survivability predictions for over 700 business types.

Which business types are most underserved in Printers Row?

The top businesses to open next in Printers Row:

Filipino Restaurants — ~90% average survival rate, up to ~91% at best locations
Italian Restaurants — ~90% average survival rate
Singaporean Restaurants — ~90% average survival rate

Static rankings can't capture every recent change in competition or foot traffic; StreetSpring's live platform provides the current score for your exact address. StreetSpring measures competition through a 30-factor framework layered on top of proprietary consumer spending forecasts and mobility models. Printers Row sits at 94.0% employment and 8.6% 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 Printers Row right now.

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 Printers Row.

What type of business should you rent your Printers Row storefront to?

Our 2026 survivability data for Printers Row shows that Filipino Restaurants, Italian Restaurants, and Singaporean Restaurants rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.

The address you choose determines your competitive exposure, customer flow, and spending potential simultaneously.
StreetSpring provides address-specific survivability predictions for over 700 business types. 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 Printers Row storefront to a Filipino Restaurant?

Yes. Among all business types analyzed for Printers Row in 2026, a Filipino Restaurant posts the highest survivability ceiling at ~91% and maintains a reasonable floor of ~88% — making it the most reliable tenant choice here.

StreetSpring provides address-specific survivability predictions for over 700 business types.

What should I consider when opening a business in Printers Row?

StreetSpring's Survivability Score for your Printers Row 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.

Revenue Capture Score is what separates locations that look similar on the surface but produce dramatically different business outcomes.
StreetSpring's proprietary algorithms power these predictions.
StreetSpring's live scoring tool is free: enter any address in Printers Row to see its current Survivability Score for your business type.

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 Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Build-out budget rules-of-thumb for 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.
Competitor density	Counting only direct competitors and missing adjacent-category overlap (e.g. coffee shop near a bakery).	Map all businesses serving overlapping customer needs within a 5-min walk. Use StreetSpring's competitor view as a starting point.
Build-out budget	Underestimating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing — the "hidden" 30-50% of build-out cost.	Get 3 quotes from licensed contractors and pad budget by +20% for surprises. Confirm landlord TI allowance in writing.

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: Supplier proximity matters more for some subtypes (restaurants, repair shops) than others (online-anchored retail).

**About Printers Row** — Printers Row is a Chicago neighborhood located in South Loop. The area of Printers Row is generally defined by Ida B. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printers_Row))

**LEHD demand-pattern signal (Printers Row):** Median 1-mile workplace jobs across Printers Row: **550,317** (LEHD LODES 2022). That works out to a **32.0:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** — a strong commercial-corridor / CBD signal. Of those workplace jobs, **8,120** are retail-sector. Use this to gauge whether your concept is weekday-commuter-driven or evening-and-weekend-driven.

Landmark anchor: Printers Row Park is the public-space landmark in Printers Row that shapes a meaningful share of neighborhood foot-traffic.

**Local economic context (Printers Row, Chicago):** Printers Row's ACS unemployment rate is **6.0%** (above the 24-metro neighborhood median). County-level data adds two more anchors: BLS QCEW reports Chicago-area average weekly wage of **$1,198** (below our 24-metro median), and the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey logged **5,308** new residential units in Cook 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

Related:

Neighborhood-Specific Questions

Additional questions with answers drawn directly from local data sources.

Does Printers Row's poverty rate signal lower retail spending?

ACS data shows 15% of Printers Row residents below the federal poverty line, versus 12% metro-wide. The poverty rate tracks the metro median; business-type fit depends more on competition and demographic specifics.

Is Printers Row a high-employment or high-unemployment area?

ACS labor-force data shows an employment rate of about 94% in Printers Row, versus 94% across Chicago. Employment is close to the metro median, suggesting stable underlying demand.

Is Printers Row mostly renters or owners?

ACS housing data shows 45% home ownership in Printers Row, compared to 45% metro-wide. The ownership profile is typical for the metro.

Is Printers Row more a residential or work-destination neighborhood?

Median commute time in Printers Row is about 26 minutes, versus 35 minutes across the Chicago metro. A shorter commute usually means residents work close to home — that boosts mid-day weekday demand for cafes, lunch spots, and convenience services.