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

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 The Loop maximize success.

Is The Loop a good place to start a business?

The Loop is ranked number 64 across neighborhoods in and around Chicago to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~80%. At the strongest addresses in The Loop, the most viable business types score ~2% higher than the average survivability rate across all locations.

What businesses are most in demand in The Loop?

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

What are the best businesses to open in The Loop?

The top businesses to open in The Loop include Italian Restaurant with a ~88% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~89%, followed by Ukrainian Restaurant and Kosher Restaurant.

How much money could a business in The Loop make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in The Loop could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~3% more than one of the worst locations.

Business Survivability in The Loop, Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in The Loop is an Italian 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 Italian Restaurant in The Loop (~88% average survival rate, ~89% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #64 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago

Neighborhood average: ~80% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed: May 11, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder

In this article:

Summary
Is The Loop 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 The Loop is an Italian Restaurant with a ~88% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~89% chance; next is an Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~88% chance, followed by a Kosher Restaurant with a ~87% chance.

What does the data say about opening in The Loop?

**Comparable neighborhoods:** Among the ~2,500 neighborhoods StreetSpring scores, The Loop's profile most resembles **Haggard (Dallas)** and **Optimist Park (Charlotte)**. All three exhibit newer housing stock, more renters, and shorter commutes — operators with experience in any of those neighborhoods will see familiar patterns in The Loop.

**Failure-mode analysis for The Loop.** The single strongest subtype in our data is **Italian Restaurant** at 88% average survivability. But the within-neighborhood spread for Italian Restaurants runs **72% to 97%** — meaning a poorly-sited Italian Restaurant in The Loop can score 25 points below a well-sited one. Saturation reality check: Hair Salons are the most-competed tracked subtype here, with 1 existing competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

StreetSpring ranks The Loop #64 among all analyzed neighborhoods in and around Chicago, with a neighborhood-wide average survivability of ~80%.

At the strongest addresses in The Loop, the most viable business types score ~2% higher than the average survivability rate across all locations.
But these same concepts at less optimal addresses within The Loop can score meaningfully below average. Survivability data shows that even the highest-demand business types fail at the wrong location.
At 94.0% employed, The Loop's consumer base has the spending capacity that makes the neighborhood viable for a wide range of business types — though location selection within the neighborhood still determines actual survivability.

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

Where in The Loop should you open a business?

StreetSpring's The Loop data goes block by block — not just neighborhood averages — so you know which specific storefront gives your concept the strongest foundation. This is the address StreetSpring's 2026 analysis recommends most strongly for an Italian Restaurant in The Loop:

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 Italian Restaurant in The Loop. StreetSpring's survivability scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool. Factors evaluated include competition at every distance band, consumer spending forecasts, mobility patterns, and market share projections.

Check if this location is still available →

Which business types have the highest survivability in The Loop?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in The Loop

Italian Restaurant — ~86%–~89% survivability range, with an average of ~88% across The Loop.
Opening an Ukrainian Restaurant in The Loop shows ~88% average survivability. Top locations reach ~90%; lower-end sites show ~85%.
Kosher Restaurant (Ranked #3): ~87% average in The Loop. Best-case storefronts: ~90%. Challenging locations: ~85%.
Filipino Restaurant is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in The Loop: ~87% chance on average, best at ~89%, challenging at ~85%.
Bangladeshi Restaurant — ~86%–~90% survivability range, with an average of ~87% across The Loop.

#6-10: Strong Performers in The Loop

Opening a South American Restaurant in The Loop shows ~87% average survivability. Top locations reach ~89%; lower-end sites show ~85%.
Deli (Ranked #7): ~87% average in The Loop. Best-case storefronts: ~89%. Challenging locations: ~86%.
Chinese Restaurant is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in The Loop: ~87% chance on average, best at ~89%, challenging at ~86%.
French Restaurant — ~86%–~89% survivability range, with an average of ~87% across The Loop.
Opening an Indonesian Restaurant in The Loop shows ~87% average survivability. Top locations reach ~89%; lower-end sites show ~86%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

The revenue potential of a The Loop location

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, identifying the optimal address for your business type in The Loop could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~3% 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.
Where you open matters more than anything else.
Businesses in high-scoring locations consistently outperform those in average or low-scoring sites.
StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success.

Which business types are most underserved in The Loop?

The top businesses to open next in The Loop:

Italian Restaurants — ~88% average survival rate, up to ~89% at best locations
Ukrainian Restaurants — ~88% average survival rate
Kosher Restaurants — ~87% average survival rate

StreetSpring's survivability scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool. StreetSpring has analyzed hundreds of thousands of business outcomes across major U.S. metros. The 11.1% commercial vacancy rate in The Loop means there is available space for new entrants — but it also signals that survivability depends heavily on choosing the right address within the neighborhood, not just the neighborhood itself. StreetSpring updates survivability scores for available locations weekly — check the live tool now to see which storefronts in The Loop 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 The Loop.

What type of business should you rent your The Loop storefront to?

For landlords in The Loop, StreetSpring's 2026 analysis identifies Italian Restaurants, Ukrainian Restaurants, and Kosher Restaurants as the business types most likely to produce stable, long-term tenancy.

Where you open matters more than anything else.
StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success. 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 The Loop storefront to an Italian Restaurant?

The data shows an Italian Restaurant is the safest long-term bet for a The Loop storefront. Top locations reach ~89% survivability; the least favorable addresses in this neighborhood score around ~86%.

StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success.

What should I consider when opening a business in The Loop?

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

Revenue Capture Score is what separates locations that look similar on the surface but produce dramatically different business outcomes.
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 The Loop 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.

Lease structure questions to ask first

Consideration	Common pitfall	What to verify 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.
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.
Lease term	Locking into 7-10 years without break clauses, then needing to relocate after year 2.	Negotiate a relocation or termination clause. Confirm assignment + sublease rights are 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

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 The Loop, Chicago — Top business types scored in The Loop, Chicago — each axis is a subtype, taller = stronger survival rate.

Bubble chart of business subtypes in Chicago by survivability score and location density — Every business subtype in Chicago plotted by score vs location count — bubble size shows market depth.

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

**About The Loop** — The Loop is Chicago's central business district and one of the 77 municipally-designated community areas of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Located at the center of downtown Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is the second-largest business district in North America, after Midtown Manhattan in New York City. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Loop))

**Daytime vs. resident population (The Loop):** US Census LEHD workplace data shows The Loop carries a **62.2× daytime/resident ratio** (a strong commercial-corridor / CBD signal), with median 1-mile workplace jobs of **621,400** (and **10,551** retail-sector jobs within that radius). A useful read on demand timing for any new storefront concept here.

Landmark anchor: McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum sits in The Loop as a history-museum anchor — the kind of cultural draw that shapes weekend foot-traffic patterns nearby.

**Three local anchors for The Loop:** **6.0%** neighborhood unemployment (above 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 The Loop business operates within.

**Sector-level context:** BLS data (BLS Business Employment Dynamics, March 2025 release) shows 5-year survival rates of **47.8%** (Active Life), **47.9%** (Retail Trade), **50.0%** (Restaurants), **50.5%** (Beauty & Personal Care), and **61.8%** (Health & Medical) — the five industry buckets covering most StreetSpring subtypes. Location-specific factors explain the rest of the variance.

Related:

Local Data Questions

Beyond the general FAQ — data-anchored answers for this specific location.

How big is the The Loop market in terms of resident population?

ACS data estimates the The Loop resident population at roughly 10K. The resident base is smaller than typical; survivability is highest for businesses that draw beyond the immediate neighborhood.

How does The Loop's commute profile affect retail demand?

ACS data puts the median commute at ~26 minutes in The Loop, compared to 35 minutes metro-wide. A shorter commute usually means residents work close to home — that boosts mid-day weekday demand for cafes, lunch spots, and convenience services.

How educated is the population in The Loop?

86% of The Loop adults have at least a bachelor's degree — above the Chicago metro median of 52%. A highly educated population tends to support specialty retail, premium services, and professional offices.