What businesses are most in demand in Gulfton?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Gulfton are Italian Restaurants, Day Care Centers, and Pet Grooming Shops.

How much money could a business in Gulfton make?

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

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

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 Gulfton maximize success.

Business Survivability in Gulfton, Houston

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Gulfton is an Italian Restaurant with a ~81% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•18 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: an Italian Restaurant in Gulfton (~81% average survival rate, ~83% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #46 across all neighborhoods in and around Houston

Neighborhood average: ~75% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Last reviewed: April 29, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder — updated weekly

In this article:

Summary
Is Gulfton 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 Gulfton is an Italian Restaurant with a ~81% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~83% chance; next is a Day Care Center with a ~81% chance, followed by a Pet Grooming Shop with a ~81% chance.

Is Gulfton a good place to start a business?

**Where else does Gulfton look like?** The strongest demographic and amenity-density matches are **Brewerytown (Philadelphia)** and **West Village (Detroit)**, sharing higher poverty, lower-income, and less college-educated. If you've worked in either of those neighborhoods, expect Gulfton to behave similarly on the dimensions that drive survival.

**What goes wrong in Gulfton.** Across 93 subtypes we track, **Day Care Center averages 81%** — the highest in the neighborhood. Yet a site-level look shows Day Care Centers range from **74% to 87%** across Gulfton — a 13-point window where the address, not the concept, decides the outcome. For competitive density: Mental Health Clinics are the most-concentrated tracked subtype (13 within 0.5 miles).

Among all neighborhoods in and around Houston, Gulfton ranks #46 for business survivability, with an average score of ~75%.

The top business types in Gulfton, when placed at their ideal addresses, achieve survivability rates ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.
Even so, the weakest addresses in Gulfton for those same business types can underperform considerably. StreetSpring's address-level scoring exists precisely to identify which specific storefronts make the difference.
With 95.2% of the local population employed, Gulfton 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.

Pinpointing the best locations within Gulfton

StreetSpring's model evaluates every available address in Gulfton for your business type, ranking them by survivability so the best storefront is always identifiable. The location below represents the address in Gulfton with the highest projected survivability for an Italian Restaurant:

Why the right block matters more than the right neighborhood

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Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of 100 location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for an Italian Restaurant in Gulfton. However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. Factors evaluated include competition at every distance band, consumer spending forecasts, mobility patterns, and market share projections.

Check if this location is still available →

What are the best businesses to open in Gulfton?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Gulfton

Italian Restaurant is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Gulfton: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~80%.
Day Care Center — ~78%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across Gulfton.
Opening a Pet Grooming Shop in Gulfton shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~79%.
Scandinavian Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~81% average in Gulfton. Best-case storefronts: ~82%. Challenging locations: ~79%.
Bangladeshi Restaurant is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Gulfton: ~81% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~79%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Gulfton

Kosher Restaurant — ~79%–~83% survivability range, with an average of ~81% across Gulfton.
Opening an American Restaurant in Gulfton shows ~80% average survivability. Top locations reach ~82%; lower-end sites show ~79%.
Russian Restaurant (Ranked #8): ~80% average in Gulfton. Best-case storefronts: ~82%. Challenging locations: ~79%.
Singaporean Restaurant is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Gulfton: ~80% chance on average, best at ~82%, challenging at ~79%.
Dance Club — ~78%–~82% survivability range, with an average of ~80% across Gulfton.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

Day Care Center — See how this compares to other cities →

What revenue can a Gulfton business expect?

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations for your business in Gulfton 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

The right address for one business type may be the wrong one for another — always evaluate fit for your specific concept.
Location is the single strongest predictor of whether a business thrives or fails.
Every percentage point of Survivability Score represents a real difference in expected revenue — choosing the highest-scoring address is the most reliable financial decision you can make at the outset.
Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually.

What Gulfton needs more of (per our model)

The top businesses to open next in Gulfton:

Italian Restaurants — ~81% average survival rate, up to ~83% at best locations
Day Care Centers — ~81% average survival rate
Pet Grooming Shops — ~81% average survival rate

However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. Every prediction draws on a dataset of millions of business openings, closures, and lifecycle events across the U.S. StreetSpring's model accounts for Gulfton's 95.2% employment rate when projecting survivability — businesses reliant on discretionary spend benefit disproportionately in well-employed neighborhoods. StreetSpring refreshes survivability scores every week to reflect new competition and updated spending data — see which locations in Gulfton are available right now and how they rank.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

Related Articles:

See the Houston Business Survivability Rankings
See the Houston Neighborhood Survivability Rankings

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

The analysis is clear: in Gulfton, Italian Restaurants, Day Care Centers, and Pet Grooming Shops consistently score highest on survivability, giving landlords the best chance of retaining tenants for 2+ years.

Location is the single strongest predictor of whether a business thrives or fails.
Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually. Run your specific address through StreetSpring to see which tenant categories give you the best odds of stable, long-term occupancy.

Should you rent your Gulfton storefront to an Italian Restaurant?

According to our 2026 survivability model, an Italian Restaurant leads all business categories for Gulfton landlords — ~83% at the best addresses and ~80% at the most challenging ones in this neighborhood.

Two storefronts on the same street can have survivability scores that differ by 20 points or more — StreetSpring calculates each one individually.

What should I consider when opening a business in Gulfton?

Survivability Score is the North Star metric for any location decision in Gulfton: it aggregates 100+ factors so you don't have to evaluate each one individually.

The most important driver of a high Survivability Score is the Revenue Capture Score for the business at the location it selects.
Every survivability score is produced by StreetSpring's private prediction engine — not available through any other platform.
The most current survivability data for Gulfton is free to access on StreetSpring — no account required to check your specific address.

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 Houston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

The hidden costs of operating in this neighborhood

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.
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.
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.

Full dataset for Houston: /resources/data/houston-survivability-scores-2026.csv — includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Visual Data

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

Dumbbell chart comparing best vs worst locations for businesses in Houston — Best vs worst neighborhood per business type in Houston — the gap shows how much location choice matters for each subtype.

How we measure this: Most retail competition operates within a 500-meter radius — outside that, behavioral economics show customers don't routinely switch.

**Neighborhood context.** Gulfton is a community in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States3.2 sq mi (8.3 km2). It is located between the 610 Loop and Beltway 8, west of the City of Bellaire, southeast of Interstate 69/U.S. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulfton%2C_Houston).

**Daytime worker density (Gulfton):** LEHD LODES Workplace Area Characteristics show a **0.3:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** for Gulfton — a primarily-residential signal with some daytime worker pull. Median workplace jobs within a 1-mile radius across Gulfton: **16,281**, of which roughly **1,883** are retail-sector. Higher daytime ratios favor weekday-lunch / commuter-traffic businesses; balanced ratios favor residential + weekend demand patterns.

Landmark anchor: Gulfton centers on Discovery Green Park — a public-space anchor that influences walking and dwell-time patterns nearby.

**Three local anchors for Gulfton:** **4.8%** neighborhood unemployment (in line with the 24-metro median, ACS), **$1,396/week** average wage in the Houston area (in line with our metro median, BLS QCEW), and **30,879** new residential units permitted in Harris County in 2025 (Census BPS). These three together describe the demand-and-labor environment any new Gulfton business operates within.

**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:

Local Context FAQ

Additional questions with answers drawn directly from local data sources.

What's the vacancy picture in Gulfton?

Approximately 10% of Gulfton housing units are vacant — above the Houston metro median (9%). Vacancy is close to the metro median — lease economics are typical for the area.

Is Gulfton mostly renters or owners?

Home ownership in Gulfton is approximately 22%, versus the Houston metro median of 53%. A higher renter share often means more population turnover; quick-service food, fitness, and convenience tend to do well in such environments.

How does the median age in Gulfton compare to the Houston metro?

Gulfton's median age is 31 versus a Houston metro median of 36 — 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.

Does Gulfton's poverty rate signal lower retail spending?

The poverty rate in Gulfton is approximately 29%, compared to the Houston metro median of 14%. Elevated poverty constrains discretionary retail; survivability is highest for essential services and value-oriented operators.

How many people live in Gulfton?

Approximately 49.7K people live in Gulfton, which puts it in the upper-middle range among Houston neighborhoods. The resident base is healthy — most retail and service business types have viable demand.