Business Survivability in Potrero Hill, San Francisco
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Potrero Hill is a Clothing Store with a 85.9% 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 Clothing Store in Potrero Hill (85.9% Typical, 90.7% Best)
- Neighborhood rank: #9 of 107 neighborhoods in and around San Francisco
- Neighborhood average: 77.0% 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 Potrero Hill 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 Potrero Hill is a Clothing Store with a 85.9% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, and 90.7% Best; next is a Convenience Store with 90.1% Best, followed by a Pizza Restaurant with 90.0% Best.
Is Potrero Hill a good place to start a business?
Potrero Hill holds the #9 position of 107 neighborhoods in and around San Francisco for new business survivability, with an average score of 77.0% across the business types ranked there.
- For the top-ranked business type, 90.7% Best is 4.8 points above 85.9% Typical in Potrero Hill.
- Yet even the strongest business types in Potrero Hill see survivability scores drop significantly at the worst addresses. No business type is immune to the consequences of poor location selection within this neighborhood.
- Potrero Hill has a housing vacancy rate of 10.5% in Census data: the share of its homes and apartments standing empty, one of the neighborhood characteristics StreetSpring's model reads.
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 Potrero Hill?
StreetSpring's Potrero Hill data goes block by block (not just neighborhood averages) so you know which specific storefront gives your concept the strongest foundation. The location below represents the address in Potrero Hill with the highest projected survivability for a Clothing Store:
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of hundreds of location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for a Clothing Store in Potrero Hill. Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. 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 Potrero Hill?
| Rank | Business type | Best | Typical | Worst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clothing Store | 90.7% | 85.9% | 80.5% |
| 2 | Convenience Store | 90.1% | 82.4% | 76.7% |
| 3 | Pizza Restaurant | 90.0% | 86.4% | 82.1% |
| 4 | Cafe | 89.6% | 83.5% | 77.5% |
| 5 | Hair Salon | 89.2% | 83.3% | 77.7% |
| 6 | Gym | 88.9% | 82.3% | 76.8% |
| 7 | Eye Care Center | 88.7% | 84.7% | 80.8% |
| 8 | Coffee Shop | 88.4% | 79.9% | 74.5% |
| 12 | Chiropractor Office | 87.5% | 82.9% | 78.3% |
| 18 | Japanese / Sushi Restaurant | 86.7% | 79.4% | 74.8% |
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 Potrero Hill
- #1 Opening a Clothing Store in Potrero Hill shows 85.9% Typical survivability, 90.7% Best and 80.5% Worst.
- #2 Convenience Store (Ranked #2): 82.4% Typical in Potrero Hill. Best: 90.1%. Worst: 76.7%.
- #3 Pizza Restaurant is ranked #3 for top businesses to open in Potrero Hill: 86.4% Typical, 90.0% Best, 82.1% Worst.
- #4 Cafe: 83.5% Typical across Potrero Hill; Best 89.6%, Worst 77.5%.
- #5 Opening a Hair Salon in Potrero Hill shows 83.3% Typical survivability, 89.2% Best and 77.7% Worst.
Strong Performers in Potrero Hill
- #6 Gym (Ranked #6): 82.3% Typical in Potrero Hill. Best: 88.9%. Worst: 76.8%.
- #7 Eye Care Center is ranked #7 for top businesses to open in Potrero Hill: 84.7% Typical, 88.7% Best, 80.8% Worst.
- #8 Coffee Shop: 79.9% Typical across Potrero Hill; Best 88.4%, Worst 74.5%.
- #12 Opening a Chiropractor Office in Potrero Hill shows 82.9% Typical survivability, 87.5% Best and 78.3% Worst.
- #18 Japanese / Sushi Restaurant (Ranked #18): 79.4% Typical in Potrero Hill. Best: 86.7%. Worst: 74.8%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Clothing Store: See how this compares to other cities →
- Convenience Store: See how this compares to other cities →
- Pizza Restaurant: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Potrero Hill make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, going with one of the top-scoring locations in the neighborhood rather than an average one in Potrero Hill 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
- StreetSpring calculates survivability for each business type separately at each address, so the best location for your concept may differ from the neighborhood's overall top-ranked site.
- Location is the part of survivability you can measure in advance: the concept, the pricing and the operator are yours to judge.
- StreetSpring's Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when comparing locations.
- StreetSpring gives you a precise survivability probability for any specific address and business type combination, not a generalized estimate.
What businesses should open next in Potrero Hill?
The top businesses to open next in Potrero Hill:
- Clothing Stores: 85.9% Typical, 90.7% Best
- Convenience Stores: 82.4% Typical, 90.1% Best
- Pizza Restaurants: 86.4% Typical, 90.0% Best
Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. Our models are built using machine learning trained on millions of commercial real estate data points. 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. Potrero Hill sits at 94.5% employment and 10.5% housing vacancy in Census data, context the model reads alongside competition and consumer spending. StreetSpring regularly refreshes survivability scores to reflect new competition and updated spending data: see which locations in Potrero Hill are available right now and how they rank.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the San Francisco Business Survivability Rankings
- See the San Francisco Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Clothing Store survivability across San Francisco neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Potrero Hill.
What type of business should you rent your Potrero Hill storefront to?
For landlords in Potrero Hill, StreetSpring's 2026 analysis identifies Clothing Stores, Convenience Stores, and Pizza Restaurants as the business types most likely to produce stable, long-term tenancy.
- Location is the part of survivability you can measure in advance: the concept, the pricing and the operator are yours to judge.
- StreetSpring gives you a precise survivability probability for any specific address and business type combination, not a generalized estimate. StreetSpring allows property owners to evaluate any address against 500+ business types, so you can prioritize the categories that score highest at your specific location.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in San Francisco Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Potrero Hill storefront to a Clothing Store?
According to our 2026 survivability model, a Clothing Store leads all business categories for Potrero Hill landlords: 90.7% Best and 80.5% Worst.
- StreetSpring gives you a precise survivability probability for any specific address and business type combination, not a generalized estimate.
What should I consider when opening a business in Potrero Hill?
In Potrero Hill, the first step in your site-selection decision is checking the Survivability Score of the specific address you're evaluating.
- Revenue Capture Score comes first when comparing locations: it turns local competition and consumer spending into the share of revenue a business can expect to win.
- No third-party scoring system produces these results: every prediction is generated by StreetSpring's own analytical models.
- You can check the most up-to-date forecasts with StreetSpring, starting with a free 10-minute trial.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring's AI platform has studied businesses serving more than 180 million+ Americans, giving its predictions a scale of validation unmatched in site-selection tools. Aggregated survivability rankings for San Francisco are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for San Francisco: /resources/data/san-francisco-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.