Business Survivability in Wicker Park, Chicago
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Wicker Park is a Veterinary Clinic with a 79.8% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.
Quick Summary
- Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
- Best business: a Veterinary Clinic in Wicker Park (79.8% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Neighborhood rank: #58 of 99 neighborhoods in and around Chicago
- Neighborhood average: 66.0% two-year survival across the business types ranked here
- Coverage: This ranking carries one row per business type and neighborhood. Its score is the projected chance of lasting two or more years, averaged across the price points StreetSpring scores separately in the tool (most types have 5). The 10 business types here are base types; the tool offers 500+ business types, counting each type at each of its price points.
- Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data
- Detailed methodology
Last reviewed: October 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
In this article:
- Summary
- Is Wicker Park 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 Wicker Park is a Veterinary Clinic with a 79.8% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is a Chiropractor Office with a 86.0% chance, followed by an Eye Care Center with a 81.1% chance.
Is Wicker Park a good place to start a business?
Wicker Park holds the #58 position of 99 neighborhoods in and around Chicago for new business survivability, with an average score of 66.0% across the business types ranked there.
- The gap between the best addresses and the average for the top-ranked business type in Wicker Park is 10.2 points on the two-year chance.
- Yet even the strongest business types in Wicker Park see survivability scores drop significantly at the worst addresses. No business type is immune to the consequences of poor location selection within this neighborhood.
- Wicker Park has a housing vacancy rate of 4.9% in Census data: the share of its homes and apartments standing empty, one of the neighborhood characteristics StreetSpring's model reads.
Employment and housing vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
How can you find the best location to open a business in Wicker Park?
StreetSpring's address-level analysis reveals which specific storefronts in Wicker Park offer the strongest survivability odds for your business type. This is the address StreetSpring's 2026 analysis recommends most strongly for a Veterinary Clinic in Wicker Park:
The highlighted area represents the address in Wicker Park that StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks highest for a Veterinary Clinic survivability. For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. StreetSpring's scoring incorporates hundreds of inputs, including competitive quality and density, projected consumer spending, Revenue Capture Score, and local demand patterns.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Wicker Park?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veterinary Clinic | 90.0% |
| 2 | Chiropractor Office | 89.6% |
| 3 | Eye Care Center | 89.2% |
| 4 | Dentist Office | 85.8% |
| 5 | Acupuncture Clinic | 85.8% |
| 9 | Men's Clothing Store | 85.0% |
| 10 | Clothing Store | 85.0% |
| 20 | Coffee Shop | 84.0% |
| 22 | Spa | 84.0% |
| 23 | Bar | 84.0% |
Ties at a good address: Dentist Office and Acupuncture Clinic are tied; Men's Clothing Store and Clothing Store are tied; Coffee Shop, Spa and Bar are tied. A tie is a tie: the rank column is the published file's order, which looks at the average and the best address next.
The rank column is the published file's rank within this place; a skipped number is a business type the file ranks here that this list leaves out to keep any one business family from filling it.
Highest Survivability in Wicker Park
- #1 Veterinary Clinic is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Wicker Park: 79.8% chance on average, best at 90.0%, challenging at 63.2%.
- #2 Chiropractor Office: 86.0% on average across Wicker Park; best at 90.0%, challenging at 67.9%.
- #3 Opening an Eye Care Center in Wicker Park shows 81.1% average survivability. Top locations reach 90.0%; lower-end sites show 60.7%.
- #4 Dentist Office (Ranked #4): 77.8% average in Wicker Park. Best-case storefronts: 88.7%. Challenging locations: 62.0%.
- #5 Acupuncture Clinic is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Wicker Park: 76.5% chance on average, best at 88.3%, challenging at 60.7%.
Strong Performers in Wicker Park
- #9 Men's Clothing Store: 81.4% on average across Wicker Park; best at 85.0%, challenging at 67.0%.
- #10 Opening a Clothing Store in Wicker Park shows 81.3% average survivability. Top locations reach 85.0%; lower-end sites show 60.2%.
- #20 Coffee Shop (Ranked #20): 83.8% average in Wicker Park. Best-case storefronts: 84.0%. Challenging locations: 83.1%.
- #22 Spa is ranked #22 for top businesses to open in Wicker Park: 80.5% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 61.5%.
- #23 Bar: 75.7% on average across Wicker Park; best at 84.0%, challenging at 59.7%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Eye Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Wicker Park make?
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 Wicker Park starts with the Revenue Capture Score, the most important factor in choosing a location: StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
How StreetSpring calculates location value
- Every business type has unique location requirements that must be considered.
- Site selection is the highest-leverage decision most entrepreneurs make: it sets every other variable in motion.
- The Revenue Capture Score is the most important factor in choosing a location: it is StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.
What businesses should open next in Wicker Park?
The top businesses to open next in Wicker Park:
- Veterinary Clinics: 79.8% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Chiropractor Offices: 86.0% average survival rate
- Eye Care Centers: 81.1% average survival rate
For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. Our analysis covers every major metro in the country: 24 cities and 180 million++ consumers. StreetSpring scores 500+ business types: 153 base business types, most of them at 5 price points, which is 569 type-and-price combinations you can choose in the tool. StreetSpring's model accounts for Wicker Park's 97.0% employment rate when projecting survivability: businesses reliant on discretionary spend benefit disproportionately in well-employed neighborhoods. StreetSpring regularly refreshes survivability scores to reflect new competition and updated spending data: see which locations in Wicker Park 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
- Explore Veterinary Clinic survivability across Chicago neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Wicker Park.
What type of business should you rent your Wicker Park storefront to?
According to StreetSpring's 2026 data, the strongest tenant types for a storefront in Wicker Park are Veterinary Clinics, Chiropractor Offices, and Eye Care Centers.
- Site selection is the highest-leverage decision most entrepreneurs make: it sets every other variable in motion.
- 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 two or more years.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Chicago Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Wicker Park storefront to a Veterinary Clinic?
StreetSpring's data confirms a Veterinary Clinic as the highest-survivability tenant type for Wicker Park. The best addresses show a 90.0% chance of lasting more than 2 years; less optimal addresses score around 63.2%.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.
What should I consider when opening a business in Wicker Park?
Start any location decision in Wicker Park with the Survivability Score: it combines 100+ location factors into one projected two-year chance.
- Revenue Capture Score comes first when comparing locations: it turns local competition and consumer spending into the share of revenue a business can expect to win.
- Every survivability score is produced by StreetSpring's private prediction engine, not available through any other platform.
- You can check the most up-to-date forecasts with StreetSpring, starting with a free 10-minute trial.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
Real estate professionals and business owners across 24 major metros use StreetSpring to ground their site-selection decisions in data, not guesswork. Aggregated survivability rankings for Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
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.