Is Westwood a good place to start a business?

Westwood is ranked number 60 across neighborhoods in and around Houston to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~72%. The most promising business types in the best locations score a ~3% higher chance of surviving 2 years than the average.

What are the best businesses to open in Westwood?

The top businesses to open in Westwood include Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~82% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~84%, followed by Kosher Restaurant and Juice & Smoothie Bar.

What businesses are most in demand in Westwood?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Westwood are Ukrainian Restaurants, Kosher Restaurants, and Juice & Smoothie Bars.

Business Survivability in Westwood, Houston

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Westwood is an Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~82% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•18 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: an Ukrainian Restaurant in Westwood (~82% average survival rate, ~84% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #60 across all neighborhoods in and around Houston

Neighborhood average: ~72% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed and updated: April 29, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is Westwood 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 Westwood is an Ukrainian Restaurant with a ~82% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~84% chance; next is a Kosher Restaurant with a ~81% chance, followed by a Juice & Smoothie Bar with a ~80% chance.

Should you open a business in Westwood?

**Pattern match:** Westwood's neighborhood signature — captured across demographic, employment, and amenity features — most closely matches **Home Beautiful Park (Miami)** and **Alden Park (Detroit)**. The three share higher poverty, lower-income, and less college-educated, which helps explain why business types that succeed in those areas tend to translate to Westwood.

**The pattern in Westwood.** Of 93 tracked subtypes, Juice & Smoothie Bar leads at **80% average survivability** — yet within the neighborhood, sites for this subtype range **71-88%** (17-point spread). That spread is the real failure surface: pick the wrong block in Westwood and a top-subtype play still scores in the bottom quartile. Meanwhile Gyms are already saturated here — 18 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

StreetSpring ranks Westwood #60 among all analyzed neighborhoods in and around Houston, with a neighborhood-wide average survivability of ~72%.

The most promising business types in the best locations score a ~3% higher chance of surviving 2 years than the average.
Even so, the weakest addresses in Westwood for those same business types can underperform considerably. StreetSpring's address-level scoring exists precisely to identify which specific storefronts make the difference.
Commercial vacancy in Westwood sits at 12.4%, a figure that factors into survivability scores for every business type in this neighborhood.

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

Pinpointing the best locations within Westwood

StreetSpring's model evaluates every available address in Westwood for your business type, ranking them by survivability so the best storefront is always identifiable. Below is the best location for an Ukrainian Restaurant in Westwood:

Reading visibility, frontage, and parking carefully

Loading live map preview...

StreetSpring's 2026 survivability data flags this circle as the prime block for an Ukrainian Restaurant in Westwood. The most reliable survivability data for any specific location is always StreetSpring's most recent live analysis, not aggregate neighborhood rankings. StreetSpring's prediction model analyzes 100 factors across competition, spending on the specific potential business, projected revenue, projected market share, Revenue Capture Score, mobility patterns, and many more.

Check if this location is still available →

What kinds of businesses thrive in Westwood?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Westwood

Ukrainian Restaurant — ~79%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~82% across Westwood.
Opening a Kosher Restaurant in Westwood shows ~81% average survivability. Top locations reach ~83%; lower-end sites show ~79%.
Juice & Smoothie Bar (Ranked #3): ~80% average in Westwood. Best-case storefronts: ~82%. Challenging locations: ~79%.
Filipino Restaurant is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Westwood: ~80% chance on average, best at ~81%, challenging at ~78%.
Pet Grooming Shop — ~77%–~81% survivability range, with an average of ~79% across Westwood.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Westwood

Opening a Scandinavian Restaurant in Westwood shows ~79% average survivability. Top locations reach ~80%; lower-end sites show ~77%.
Portuguese Restaurant (Ranked #7): ~79% average in Westwood. Best-case storefronts: ~81%. Challenging locations: ~77%.
Indonesian Restaurant is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Westwood: ~79% chance on average, best at ~81%, challenging at ~77%.
Diner — ~77%–~81% survivability range, with an average of ~79% across Westwood.
Opening a Pet Boarding Facility in Westwood shows ~79% average survivability. Top locations reach ~81%; lower-end sites show ~77%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

How much money could a business in Westwood 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 Westwood could lead to you making ~3% 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.
The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
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.
StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success.

Which business types are most underserved in Westwood?

The top businesses to open next in Westwood:

Ukrainian Restaurants — ~82% average survival rate, up to ~84% at best locations
Kosher Restaurants — ~81% average survival rate
Juice & Smoothie Bars — ~80% average survival rate

The most reliable survivability data for any specific location is always StreetSpring's most recent live analysis, not aggregate neighborhood rankings. Our platform incorporates data from thousands of neighborhoods nationwide. StreetSpring's model accounts for Westwood's 91.4% employment rate when projecting survivability — businesses reliant on discretionary spend benefit disproportionately in well-employed neighborhoods. Survivability scores are live, not static — StreetSpring updates them weekly. Visit the tool to see what's currently available in Westwood and how each address is scoring right now.

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 Westwood.

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

The analysis is clear: in Westwood, Ukrainian Restaurants, Kosher Restaurants, and Juice & Smoothie Bars consistently score highest on survivability, giving landlords the best chance of retaining tenants for 2+ years.

The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success. StreetSpring can show you which specific address in your portfolio scores highest for each tenant type.

Should you rent your Westwood storefront to an Ukrainian Restaurant?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, an Ukrainian Restaurant ranks as the top tenant type for your Westwood storefront — best-case locations show a ~84% survival rate, while the most challenging addresses drop to ~79%.

StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success.

What should I consider when opening a business in Westwood?

When evaluating potential locations in Westwood, start with the Survivability Score. It accounts for competition, spending, mobility, and market share in a single figure.

Revenue Capture Score is the single best indicator of whether a business will thrive at a location.
Every survivability score is produced by StreetSpring's private prediction engine — not available through any other platform.
StreetSpring is free to use — see the current survivability score for any address in Westwood right now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring combines proprietary data with advanced analytics to predict which businesses will succeed. Aggregated survivability rankings for Houston 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
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.
Parking & visibility	Storefront looks great from the sidewalk but is invisible from the road.	Drive past at 30 mph from both directions. Count street parking + nearest paid lot capacity at peak hours.
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

Treemap of Houston business mix by survivability score — Treemap of business mix in Houston — cell size = number of locations, color = average survivability score.

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

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.

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.

**Daytime vs. resident population (Westwood):** US Census LEHD workplace data shows Westwood carries a **0.4× daytime/resident ratio** (a primarily-residential signal with some daytime worker pull), with median 1-mile workplace jobs of **21,536** (and **3,175** retail-sector jobs within that radius). A useful read on demand timing for any new storefront concept here.

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

**Local economic context (Westwood, Houston):** Westwood's ACS unemployment rate is **8.6%** (above the 24-metro neighborhood median). County-level data adds two more anchors: BLS QCEW reports Houston-area average weekly wage of **$1,396** (in line with our 24-metro median), and the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey logged **30,879** new residential units in Harris County in 2025 — a rough proxy for the local growth environment a new business is opening into.

**National benchmark:** Per BLS Business Employment Dynamics (March 2025), 5-year survival rates for StreetSpring's tracked industries span **47.8-61.8%**. Restaurants — the most-studied of these — survive at **50.0%** nationally, not the often-cited "80% fail" myth. The real risk premium is at the location level, which is what StreetSpring's model isolates.

Related:

Business Survivability in Westwood, Houston

Summary

Should you open a business in Westwood?

Pinpointing the best locations within Westwood

Reading visibility, frontage, and parking carefully