What businesses are most in demand in Wildwood?

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

How much money could a business in Wildwood make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Wildwood could lead to making ~1% 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 Wildwood?

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 Wildwood maximize success.

What are the best businesses to open in Wildwood?

The top businesses to open in Wildwood include American Restaurant with a ~91% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~92%, followed by Filipino Restaurant and Bangladeshi Restaurant.

Is Wildwood a good place to start a business?

Wildwood is ranked number 17 across neighborhoods in and around Chicago to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~83%. The survivability gap between the best and average addresses in Wildwood reaches ~1% for the strongest-performing business categories.

Business Survivability in Wildwood, Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Wildwood is an American Restaurant with a ~91% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•18 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: an American Restaurant in Wildwood (~91% average survival rate, ~92% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #17 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 and updated: May 13, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is Wildwood 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 Wildwood is an American Restaurant with a ~91% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~92% chance; next is a Filipino Restaurant with a ~91% chance, followed by a Bangladeshi Restaurant with a ~91% chance.

How business-friendly is Wildwood right now?

**How Wildwood compares:** Wildwood's profile most resembles **Enumclaw (Seattle)** and **Cascade Southeast (Portland)** based on the demographic and density signatures we use to model location quality — all three share blue-collar job mix, more homeowners, and few anchor tenants. Patterns from those neighborhoods are directly relevant for businesses evaluating Wildwood.

**Failure pattern in Wildwood.** Across the 93 business subtypes we track here, the strongest is **American Restaurant** at 91% average survivability — but the best and worst sites for this subtype within Wildwood span **71% to 97%**, a 26-point gap. **The dominant failure mode in Wildwood isn't subtype choice — it's site selection within the neighborhood.** Saturation context: Gyms are the most-concentrated tracked subtype in the area, with 1 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

Wildwood holds the #17 position in and around Chicago for new business survivability, averaging ~83% across all analyzed business types.

The survivability gap between the best and average addresses in Wildwood reaches ~1% for the strongest-performing business categories.
However, those same business types at the weakest addresses in Wildwood can score considerably below average. Even the most in-demand concept in Wildwood will struggle if it opens at the wrong address.
With 94.5% of the local population employed, Wildwood presents a stable consumer base — particularly for food, beverage, and service businesses that depend on repeat discretionary spending.

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

How to choose a specific location in Wildwood

StreetSpring scores survivability at the exact address level in Wildwood — so you can compare two storefronts on the same block before committing to a lease. The location below represents the address in Wildwood with the highest projected survivability for an American Restaurant:

Anchor tenants that lift survival odds

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StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for an American Restaurant in Wildwood. These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. 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 →

Top-ranked business types for Wildwood

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Wildwood

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

#6-10: Strong Performers in Wildwood

Deli — ~89%–~92% survivability range, with an average of ~91% across Wildwood.
Opening a Chicken Shop in Wildwood shows ~91% average survivability. Top locations reach ~93%; lower-end sites show ~89%.
Brunch Restaurant (Ranked #8): ~91% average in Wildwood. Best-case storefronts: ~93%. Challenging locations: ~88%.
Italian Restaurant is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Wildwood: ~91% chance on average, best at ~92%, challenging at ~89%.
Indonesian Restaurant — ~89%–~93% survivability range, with an average of ~91% across Wildwood.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

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

The revenue potential of a Wildwood location

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, picking the highest-scoring storefront in the neighborhood in Wildwood could lead to you making ~1% 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

However, each business concept should be evaluated for fit within each potential location.
Site selection is the highest-leverage decision most entrepreneurs make — it sets every other variable in motion.
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.
StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.

Where the next great business in Wildwood should go

The top businesses to open next in Wildwood:

American Restaurants — ~91% average survival rate, up to ~92% at best locations
Filipino Restaurants — ~91% average survival rate
Bangladeshi Restaurants — ~91% average survival rate

These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. We have been studying the businesses serving more than 180 million+ Americans. A 4.6% vacancy rate in Wildwood reflects the current commercial environment; StreetSpring weights this directly in every survivability score for addresses in this neighborhood. StreetSpring refreshes survivability scores every week to reflect new competition and updated spending data — see which locations in Wildwood 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

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Wildwood.

What type of business should you rent your Wildwood storefront to?

Based on 2026 survivability scores across all business types in Wildwood, the top three tenant categories for landlords are American Restaurants, Filipino Restaurants, and Bangladeshi Restaurants.

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. Use StreetSpring to see the survivability score for any business type at your exact storefront address before you sign a lease.

Should you rent your Wildwood storefront to an American Restaurant?

Yes. Among all business types analyzed for Wildwood in 2026, an American Restaurant posts the highest survivability ceiling at ~92% and maintains a reasonable floor of ~89% — making it the most reliable tenant choice here.

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

What should I consider when opening a business in Wildwood?

StreetSpring's Survivability Score for your Wildwood 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.

StreetSpring's analysis consistently shows Revenue Capture Score predicts survival odds more accurately than demographic data or foot traffic estimates alone.
StreetSpring's forecasting tools are purpose-built for commercial location decisions and are not available through any publicly accessible data source.
The most current survivability data for Wildwood is free to access on StreetSpring — no account required to check your specific address.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring's AI platform has analyzed thousands of business openings to identify success patterns. Aggregated survivability rankings for Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Lease structure questions to ask first

Area to check	What can go wrong	How to de-risk it
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.
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.
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.

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

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in Wildwood, Chicago — Top business types scored in Wildwood, 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: Most retail competition operates within a 500-meter radius — outside that, behavioral economics show customers don't routinely switch.

**Wildwood at a glance.** Wildwood is a neighborhood located in the Forest Glen Community Area on the Far Northwest side of Chicago, Illinois. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildwood%2C_Chicago))

**LEHD demand-pattern signal (Wildwood):** Median 1-mile workplace jobs across Wildwood: **10,106** (LEHD LODES 2022). That works out to a **0.4:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** — a primarily-residential signal with some daytime worker pull. Of those workplace jobs, **2,344** are retail-sector. Use this to gauge whether your concept is weekday-commuter-driven or evening-and-weekend-driven.

Landmark anchor: Wildwood centers on Chicago Park District Wildwood Park — a public-space anchor that influences walking and dwell-time patterns nearby.

**Local economic context (Wildwood, Chicago):** Wildwood's ACS unemployment rate is **5.5%** (in line with 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.

**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:

Beyond the Numbers: Local Context

Local-context questions, answered with neighborhood-specific numbers.

What's the local customer base size in Wildwood?

Wildwood has approximately 25.9K residents, putting it in the upper-middle range among Chicago neighborhoods we track. The resident base is healthy — most retail and service business types have viable demand.

What's the poverty rate in Wildwood, and what does it imply for businesses?

ACS data shows 10% of Wildwood 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 Wildwood's population younger or older than the Chicago average?

ACS data puts Wildwood's median age at 42, compared to the Chicago metro median of 37. That's older by 5 years — An older profile tends to favor healthcare, professional services, and family-oriented retail over nightlife.

Is Wildwood more a residential or work-destination neighborhood?

ACS data puts the median commute at ~32 minutes in Wildwood, compared to 35 minutes metro-wide. Commute patterns are typical for the metro, so foot traffic timing should not be a primary differentiator.

Is Wildwood a high-employment or high-unemployment area?

ACS labor-force data shows an employment rate of about 95% in Wildwood, versus 94% across Chicago. Employment is close to the metro median, suggesting stable underlying demand.