How much money could a business in West Town make?

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

What are the best businesses to open in West Town?

The top businesses to open in West Town include Italian Restaurant with a ~91% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~93%, followed by Singaporean Restaurant and Kosher Restaurant.

How can you find the best location to open a business in West Town?

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 West Town maximize success.

Is West Town a good place to start a business?

West Town is ranked number 10 across neighborhoods in and around Chicago to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~84%. Strong business types at their best-match addresses in West Town consistently score ~2% higher than the overall neighborhood survivability average.

What businesses are most in demand in West Town?

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

Business Survivability in West Town, Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in West Town is an Italian Restaurant with a ~91% 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 West Town (~91% average survival rate, ~93% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #10 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago

Neighborhood average: ~84% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Last reviewed: May 4, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder — updated weekly

In this article:

Summary
Is West Town 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 West Town is an Italian Restaurant with a ~91% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~93% chance; next is a Singaporean Restaurant with a ~91% chance, followed by a Kosher Restaurant with a ~91% chance.

Is West Town the right neighborhood for a new business?

**Where else does West Town look like?** The strongest demographic and amenity-density matches are **Sardis Woods (Charlotte)** and **South Tabor (Portland)**, sharing few nearby parks, low poverty, and higher employment. If you've worked in either of those neighborhoods, expect West Town to behave similarly on the dimensions that drive survival.

**What goes wrong in West Town.** Across 93 subtypes we track, **Kosher Restaurant averages 91%** — the highest in the neighborhood. Yet a site-level look shows Kosher Restaurants range from **76% to 97%** across West Town — a 21-point window where the address, not the concept, decides the outcome. For competitive density: Hair Salons are the most-concentrated tracked subtype (1 within 0.5 miles).

West Town is the #10 most survivable neighborhood for new businesses in and around Chicago, with an average score of ~84% across all analyzed categories.

Strong business types at their best-match addresses in West Town consistently score ~2% higher than the overall neighborhood survivability average.
Yet even the strongest business types in West Town see survivability scores drop significantly at the worst addresses. No business type is immune to the consequences of poor location selection within this neighborhood.
West Town's 5.9% commercial vacancy rate signals the current availability of storefronts and shapes the competitive environment that survivability scores reflect.

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

How to choose a specific location in West Town

StreetSpring's address-level analysis reveals which specific storefronts in West Town offer the strongest survivability odds for your business type. StreetSpring's 2026 analysis identifies this area as the top location for an Italian Restaurant in West Town:

Walking the neighborhood: what to look for

Loading live map preview...

StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for an Italian Restaurant in West Town. The most reliable survivability data for any specific location is always StreetSpring's most recent live analysis, not aggregate neighborhood rankings. The model evaluates 100 factors — from primary and secondary competition to forecasted spend, mobility flows, and local market share potential.

Check if this location is still available →

Which business types have the highest survivability in West Town?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in West Town

Italian Restaurant is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in West Town: ~91% chance on average, best at ~93%, challenging at ~90%.
Singaporean Restaurant — ~90%–~93% survivability range, with an average of ~91% across West Town.
Opening a Kosher Restaurant in West Town shows ~91% average survivability. Top locations reach ~93%; lower-end sites show ~89%.
Filipino Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~91% average in West Town. Best-case storefronts: ~92%. Challenging locations: ~89%.
Ukrainian Restaurant is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in West Town: ~91% chance on average, best at ~93%, challenging at ~89%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in West Town

American Restaurant — ~89%–~92% survivability range, with an average of ~91% across West Town.
Opening a Bangladeshi Restaurant in West Town shows ~91% average survivability. Top locations reach ~93%; lower-end sites show ~89%.
South American Restaurant (Ranked #8): ~91% average in West Town. Best-case storefronts: ~93%. Challenging locations: ~89%.
Deli is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in West Town: ~91% chance on average, best at ~92%, challenging at ~89%.
Chinese Restaurant — ~89%–~92% survivability range, with an average of ~91% across West Town.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

The revenue potential of a West Town location

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting a storefront that StreetSpring ranks in the top tier for your business type in West Town 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

Site-specific factors can dramatically alter outcomes even within the same neighborhood.
Every site-selection decision starts and ends with location — it outweighs concept, brand, and execution combined.
Maximizing your Survivability Score is the most reliable path to profitability.
StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.

Where the next great business in West Town should go

The top businesses to open next in West Town:

Italian Restaurants — ~91% average survival rate, up to ~93% at best locations
Singaporean Restaurants — ~91% average survival rate
Kosher Restaurants — ~91% average survival rate

The most reliable survivability data for any specific location is always StreetSpring's most recent live analysis, not aggregate neighborhood rankings. StreetSpring's training dataset includes millions of transactions and business lifecycle events. West Town's employment rate (97.2%) and vacancy rate (5.9%) together define the economic context that StreetSpring's model uses to score survivability for each business type at each address. Because market conditions shift constantly, StreetSpring updates every location's survivability score weekly — you can see current scores for available storefronts in West Town 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 West Town.

What type of business should you rent your West Town storefront to?

Based on 2026 survivability scores across all business types in West Town, the top three tenant categories for landlords are Italian Restaurants, Singaporean Restaurants, and Kosher Restaurants.

Every site-selection decision starts and ends with location — it outweighs concept, brand, and execution combined.
StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast 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 West Town storefront to an Italian Restaurant?

StreetSpring's data confirms an Italian Restaurant as the highest-survivability tenant type for West Town. The best addresses show a ~93% chance of lasting more than 2 years; less optimal addresses score around ~90%.

StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.

What should I consider when opening a business in West Town?

In West Town, the single most important factor in your site-selection decision is the Survivability Score of the specific address you're evaluating.

Of all the variables StreetSpring analyzes, Revenue Capture Score has the strongest predictive power.
These insights come from StreetSpring's exclusive, in-house forecasting models.
StreetSpring offers free access to its survivability scores — see how your shortlisted West Town addresses rank right now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring uses AI to predict business survivability across U.S. neighborhoods — trusted by real estate professionals and entrepreneurs nationwide. Aggregated survivability rankings for Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Lease structure questions to ask first

Factor	Where new owners get tripped up	Questions to ask before you sign
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.
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.
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.

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in West Town, Chicago — Top business types scored in West Town, Chicago — each axis is a subtype, taller = stronger survival rate.

How we measure this: Our gradient-boosted survivability model has 100+ input features. The waterfall shows the top 6-8 contributors to a final score.

**West Town at a glance.** West Town is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago in Illinois, United States, located on the northwest of the Loop. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Town%2C_Chicago))

**Worker-to-resident ratio (West Town):** LEHD daytime population data gives West Town a **5.5-to-1 worker/resident ratio** (a strong commercial-corridor / CBD signal). Median 1-mile workplace jobs: **49,128**; retail share within that: **2,282**. Worker-heavy neighborhoods skew demand toward weekday-business-hours; resident-heavy neighborhoods skew toward evenings and weekends.

Landmark anchor: Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation - USA is West Town's history-museum landmark and a meaningful pull factor for visitor foot-traffic.

**Economic context that bounds the demand environment in West Town:** Per ACS, neighborhood unemployment is **2.8%** (below the 24-metro neighborhood median). BLS QCEW shows the Chicago metro's average weekly wage at **$1,198** (below our 24-metro median). And Cook County permitted **5,308** new residential units in 2025 per Census BPS — a population-and-demand growth signal.

**Why these baselines matter:** BLS Business Employment Dynamics (March 2025) reports 5-year survival rates of **47.8-61.8%** across the industries StreetSpring covers. Restaurants survive at **50.0%** nationally — not 20%. The location decision is what separates the 30% above the baseline from the 30% below.

Related:

Beyond the Numbers: Local Context

Further questions, with answers anchored on this neighborhood's actual data.

What is the median household income in West Town?

ACS data shows median household income in West Town at roughly $140K, compared to $103K across the Chicago metro. Higher median income supports premium retail, upscale dining, and discretionary services.

How many people live in West Town?

ACS data estimates the West Town resident population at roughly 8.9K. A smaller resident base means destination-pull or commuter capture matters more than walk-in traffic alone.

How does West Town's commute profile affect retail demand?

Median commute time in West Town is about 27 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.