Business Survivability in Forest Hills, New York City
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Forest Hills is a Convenience Store with a 76.1% 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 Convenience Store in Forest Hills (76.1% Typical, 86.6% Best)
- Neighborhood rank: #79 of 180 neighborhoods in and around New York City
- Neighborhood average: 62.0% 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: November 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
In this article:
- Summary
- Is Forest Hills 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 Forest Hills is a Convenience Store with a 76.1% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, and 86.6% Best; next is a Cafe with 84.3% Best, followed by a Chiropractor Office with 83.0% Best.
Is Forest Hills a good place to start a business?
Forest Hills holds the #79 position of 180 neighborhoods in and around New York City for new business survivability, with an average score of 62.0% across the business types ranked there.
- For the top-ranked business type, 86.6% Best is 10.5 points above 76.1% Typical in Forest Hills.
- Yet the same categories that score highest in Forest Hills can underperform significantly at the wrong address. Location precision within the neighborhood matters as much as choosing the neighborhood itself.
- Housing vacancy in Forest Hills sits at 7.2%, a Census figure that StreetSpring's model reads for every business type it scores here.
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 Forest Hills?
Rather than relying on neighborhood averages, StreetSpring's scoring tells you which specific addresses in Forest Hills give your concept the best odds of survival. According to StreetSpring's 2026 data, this is the optimal address for a Convenience Store in Forest Hills:
The highlighted area represents the address in Forest Hills that StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks highest for a Convenience Store survivability. Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. 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 Forest Hills?
| Rank | Business type | Best | Typical | Worst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Convenience Store | 86.6% | 76.1% | 69.0% |
| 2 | Cafe | 84.3% | 73.6% | 65.8% |
| 3 | Chiropractor Office | 83.0% | 75.1% | 67.2% |
| 4 | Laundromat | 82.8% | 73.3% | 65.9% |
| 5 | Veterinary Clinic | 82.0% | 74.7% | 67.4% |
| 6 | Beauty Salon | 81.9% | 73.1% | 66.0% |
| 7 | Clothing Store | 80.5% | 71.5% | 63.2% |
| 8 | Hair Salon | 79.5% | 70.6% | 62.3% |
| 10 | Spa | 77.2% | 68.2% | 59.3% |
| 11 | Acupuncture Clinic | 76.9% | 69.9% | 62.8% |
Best and Worst are the average results for the better and the worse of two addresses picked at random in the place: a weighted average of every scored location in which the best locations count the most for Best and the weakest count the most for Worst. Typical is the average address. Best is shown for a smaller space (half the standard size) and Worst for a larger one (half again as large), at the metro's median asking rent, using the same rent rule as our tool; Typical is at the market rent.
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 Forest Hills
- #1 Convenience Store (Ranked #1): 76.1% Typical in Forest Hills. Best: 86.6%. Worst: 69.0%.
- #2 Cafe is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Forest Hills: 73.6% Typical, 84.3% Best, 65.8% Worst.
- #3 Chiropractor Office: 75.1% Typical across Forest Hills; Best 83.0%, Worst 67.2%.
- #4 Opening a Laundromat in Forest Hills shows 73.3% Typical survivability, 82.8% Best and 65.9% Worst.
- #5 Veterinary Clinic (Ranked #5): 74.7% Typical in Forest Hills. Best: 82.0%. Worst: 67.4%.
Strong Performers in Forest Hills
- #6 Beauty Salon is ranked #6 for top businesses to open in Forest Hills: 73.1% Typical, 81.9% Best, 66.0% Worst.
- #7 Clothing Store: 71.5% Typical across Forest Hills; Best 80.5%, Worst 63.2%.
- #8 Opening a Hair Salon in Forest Hills shows 70.6% Typical survivability, 79.5% Best and 62.3% Worst.
- #10 Spa (Ranked #10): 68.2% Typical in Forest Hills. Best: 77.2%. Worst: 59.3%.
- #11 Acupuncture Clinic is ranked #11 for top businesses to open in Forest Hills: 69.9% Typical, 76.9% Best, 62.8% Worst.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Convenience Store: See how this compares to other cities →
- Cafe: See how this compares to other cities →
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Forest Hills make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting a storefront that StreetSpring ranks in the top tier for your business type in Forest Hills 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
- The right address for one business type may be the wrong one for another: always evaluate fit for your specific concept.
- Where you open is a decision you can measure before you sign.
- StreetSpring's Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when comparing locations.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does.
What businesses should open next in Forest Hills?
The top businesses to open next in Forest Hills:
- Convenience Stores: 76.1% Typical, 86.6% Best
- Cafes: 73.6% Typical, 84.3% Best
- Chiropractor Offices: 75.1% Typical, 83.0% Best
Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. Every prediction draws on a dataset of millions of business openings, closures, and lifecycle events across the U.S. 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. Forest Hills's employment rate (95.0%) and housing vacancy rate (7.2%) are part of the Census context StreetSpring's model reads when it scores each business type at each address. StreetSpring regularly refreshes survivability scores to reflect new competition and updated spending data: see which locations in Forest Hills are available right now and how they rank.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the New York City Business Survivability Rankings
- See the New York City Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Convenience Store survivability across New York City neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Forest Hills.
What type of business should you rent your Forest Hills storefront to?
StreetSpring's 2026 model places Convenience Stores, Cafes, and Chiropractor Offices at the top of the survivability rankings for Forest Hills, making them the safest long-term tenant bets for landlords here.
- Where you open is a decision you can measure before you sign.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does. With StreetSpring, you can rank every potential tenant type by survivability score at your property address before committing to a lease.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in New York City Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Forest Hills storefront to a Convenience Store?
Yes, our 2026 model ranks a Convenience Store first among business types for Forest Hills storefronts, with 86.6% Best and 69.0% Worst.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does.
What should I consider when opening a business in Forest Hills?
In Forest Hills, the first step in your site-selection decision is checking the Survivability Score of the specific address you're evaluating.
- Revenue Capture is where competition meets spending, and it's the number that matters most when choosing a location.
- StreetSpring uses its own proprietary forecasting tools to identify the Revenue Capture Score for each unique business.
- You can check the Survivability Score for any storefront in Forest Hills with a free 10-minute trial of StreetSpring's live tool.
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 New York City are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for New York City: /resources/data/new-york-city-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.