What are the best businesses to open in Wrigleyville?

The top businesses to open in Wrigleyville include Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~90% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~92%, followed by Indonesian Restaurant and Italian Restaurant.

Is Wrigleyville a good place to start a business?

Wrigleyville is ranked number 47 across neighborhoods in and around Chicago to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~81%. Best-case locations for the top business types in Wrigleyville produce survivability scores ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.

How much money could a business in Wrigleyville make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Wrigleyville could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~5% more than one of the worst locations.

What businesses are most in demand in Wrigleyville?

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

Business Survivability in Wrigleyville, Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Wrigleyville is an Ukrainian 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: an Ukrainian Restaurant in Wrigleyville (~90% average survival rate, ~92% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #47 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago

Neighborhood average: ~81% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed and updated: April 26, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is Wrigleyville 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 Wrigleyville is an Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~90% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~92% chance; next is an Indonesian Restaurant with a ~90% chance, followed by an Italian Restaurant with a ~90% chance.

Is Wrigleyville the right neighborhood for a new business?

**How Wrigleyville compares:** Wrigleyville's profile most resembles **Overbrook (Philadelphia)** and **Crocker Amazon (San Francisco)** based on the demographic and density signatures we use to model location quality — all three share low destination density, low vacancy, and longer commutes. Patterns from those neighborhoods are directly relevant for businesses evaluating Wrigleyville.

**Failure pattern in Wrigleyville.** Across the 93 business subtypes we track here, the strongest is **Ukrainian Restaurant** at 90% average survivability — but the best and worst sites for this subtype within Wrigleyville span **75% to 96%**, a 21-point gap. **The dominant failure mode in Wrigleyville isn't subtype choice — it's site selection within the neighborhood.** Saturation context: American Restaurants are the most-concentrated tracked subtype in the area, with 1 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

StreetSpring's analysis places Wrigleyville at #47 in Chicago for new business survival odds, with a neighborhood-wide average of ~81%.

Best-case locations for the top business types in Wrigleyville produce survivability scores ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.
However, those high-scoring categories placed at the least-competitive addresses in Wrigleyville often fall well below average. Picking the right block — not just the right neighborhood — is what actually determines survivability.
At 96.6% employed, Wrigleyville'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.

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

StreetSpring's address-level analysis reveals which specific storefronts in Wrigleyville offer the strongest survivability odds for your business type. Below is the best location for an Ukrainian Restaurant in Wrigleyville:

Why the right block matters more than the right neighborhood

Loading live map preview...

This map shows the optimal location for an Ukrainian Restaurant in Wrigleyville based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis. The most reliable survivability data for any specific location is always StreetSpring's most recent live analysis, not aggregate neighborhood rankings. The prediction model incorporates 100 location-specific factors, including competitive density, forecasted consumer spending, mobility patterns, and Revenue Capture Score.

Check if this location is still available →

Top-ranked business types for Wrigleyville

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Wrigleyville

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

#6-10: Strong Performers in Wrigleyville

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

Top 3 Compared Nationally

The revenue potential of a Wrigleyville location

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, identifying the optimal address for your business type in Wrigleyville could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~5% 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.
Location shapes survivability more than branding, pricing, or operational quality — the data is unambiguous on this point.
Across every business type we've analyzed, location quality as measured by Survivability Score is the strongest predictor of financial performance.
StreetSpring delivers pinpoint accuracy down to the exact storefront location.

Where the next great business in Wrigleyville should go

The top businesses to open next in Wrigleyville:

Ukrainian Restaurants — ~90% average survival rate, up to ~92% at best locations
Indonesian Restaurants — ~90% average survival rate
Italian Restaurants — ~90% 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 measures competition through a 30-factor framework layered on top of proprietary consumer spending forecasts and mobility models. Wrigleyville's employment rate (96.6%) and vacancy rate (5.3%) together define the economic context that StreetSpring's model uses to score survivability for each business type at each address. These rankings are a snapshot; StreetSpring recalculates survivability for every location in Wrigleyville weekly, incorporating the latest competitive openings, closures, and spending data — check current locations 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 Wrigleyville.

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

StreetSpring's 2026 model places Ukrainian Restaurants, Indonesian Restaurants, and Italian Restaurants at the top of the survivability rankings for Wrigleyville — making them the safest long-term tenant bets for landlords here.

Location shapes survivability more than branding, pricing, or operational quality — the data is unambiguous on this point.
StreetSpring delivers pinpoint accuracy down to the exact storefront location. With StreetSpring, you can rank every potential tenant type by survivability score at your property address before committing to a lease.

Should you rent your Wrigleyville storefront to an Ukrainian Restaurant?

The data shows an Ukrainian Restaurant is the safest long-term bet for a Wrigleyville storefront. Top locations reach ~92% survivability; the least favorable addresses in this neighborhood score around ~87%.

StreetSpring delivers pinpoint accuracy down to the exact storefront location.

What should I consider when opening a business in Wrigleyville?

Among all the criteria to weigh when opening a business in Wrigleyville, Survivability Score carries the most predictive weight — choose the address with the highest score your budget allows.

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 offers free access to its survivability scores — see how your shortlisted Wrigleyville addresses rank right now.

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.

Lease structure questions to ask first

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.
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.
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

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in Wrigleyville, Chicago — Top business types scored in Wrigleyville, 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: Our gradient-boosted survivability model has 100+ input features. The waterfall shows the top 6-8 contributors to a final score.

**Neighborhood context.** Lake View is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago in Illinois, United States. It is located on the city's North Side and is bordered by West Diversey Parkway on the south, West Irving Park Road and West Montrose Ave on the north, North Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and the shore of Lake Michigan on the east. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_View%2C_Chicago).

**Daytime population context (Wrigleyville):** Per US Census LEHD LODES, the median 1-mile workplace-jobs population within Wrigleyville is **26,816** — about **1.0× the resident population**, which qualifies as a balanced mixed-use pattern. Retail-sector jobs in that radius: **5,093**. This shapes which business models have a natural demand floor here.

Landmark anchor: Wrigleyville's park anchor is Miller Park South, which sets weekend and warm-weather foot-traffic patterns for the surrounding blocks.

**Economic context that bounds the demand environment in Wrigleyville:** Per ACS, neighborhood unemployment is **3.4%** (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.

**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:

Local Data Questions

More questions answered with neighborhood-specific data from our 2026 corpus.

What survival rates does the federal government track for small businesses?

BLS publishes 5-year cohort survival rates by industry. For sectors StreetSpring covers, the range is 47.8-61.8% — Active Life low, Health & Medical high, Restaurants and Retail in the middle around 47.9-50%. Location-specific factors drive most of the variance around these baselines.

83% of Wrigleyville 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.

How does the median age in Wrigleyville compare to the Chicago metro?

Wrigleyville's median age is 32 versus a Chicago metro median of 37 — younger by 5 years. This shapes which business types tend to survive: A younger profile tends to drive demand for nightlife, fitness, and casual dining over family-oriented services.

What's the local customer base size in Wrigleyville?

ACS data estimates the Wrigleyville resident population at roughly 28.2K. The resident base is healthy — most retail and service business types have viable demand.