Business Survivability in Lakewood, Seattle
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Lakewood is a Day Care Center with a 79.5% 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 Day Care Center in Lakewood (79.5% Typical, 86.6% Best)
- Town rank: #13 of 23 towns around Seattle
- Town average: an average Survivability Score of 70.7% 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 Lakewood 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 Lakewood is a Day Care Center with a 79.5% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, and 86.6% Best; next is a Chiropractor Office with 85.9% Best, followed by an Acupuncture Clinic with 85.3% Best.
Is Lakewood a good place to start a business?
StreetSpring ranks Lakewood #13 of 23 towns around Seattle, with an average Survivability Score of 70.7% across the business types ranked there.
- For the top-ranked business type, 86.6% Best is 7.1 points above 79.5% Typical in Lakewood.
- But at poorly chosen addresses within Lakewood, even the top-ranked business types can fall well below the neighborhood average. Location selection remains critical: a promising concept at the wrong spot still carries significant risk.
- StreetSpring's model reads Lakewood's 3.5% housing vacancy rate, a Census measure of vacant homes and apartments, as one input among many.
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 Lakewood?
The right address in Lakewood can mean a 20-point survivability difference from an average one: StreetSpring identifies exactly which addresses are worth pursuing. The location below represents the address in Lakewood with the highest projected survivability for a Day Care Center:
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of hundreds of location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for a Day Care Center in Lakewood. These rankings are based on the latest available data; check StreetSpring for real-time updates. 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 Lakewood?
| Rank | Business type | Best | Typical | Worst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day Care Center | 86.6% | 79.5% | 75.0% |
| 2 | Chiropractor Office | 85.9% | 81.2% | 76.5% |
| 3 | Acupuncture Clinic | 85.3% | 80.1% | 74.8% |
| 4 | Mental Health Clinic | 85.3% | 80.1% | 74.8% |
| 8 | Convenience Store | 83.7% | 76.4% | 71.2% |
| 9 | Eye Care Center | 83.4% | 77.4% | 71.4% |
| 10 | Veterinary Clinic | 82.4% | 75.9% | 69.4% |
| 12 | Smoke Shop | 80.0% | 74.1% | 68.6% |
| 13 | Clothing Store | 79.9% | 73.5% | 67.4% |
| 14 | Coffee Shop | 79.8% | 73.5% | 68.0% |
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.
Ties on Best: Acupuncture Clinic and Mental Health Clinic are tied. A tie is a tie: the rank column is the published file's order, which looks at Typical next.
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 Lakewood
- #1 Day Care Center (Ranked #1): 79.5% Typical in Lakewood. Best: 86.6%. Worst: 75.0%.
- #2 Chiropractor Office is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Lakewood: 81.2% Typical, 85.9% Best, 76.5% Worst.
- #3 Acupuncture Clinic: 80.1% Typical across Lakewood; Best 85.3%, Worst 74.8%.
- #4 Opening a Psychiatry or Psychology Practice in Lakewood shows 80.1% Typical survivability, 85.3% Best and 74.8% Worst.
- #8 Convenience Store (Ranked #8): 76.4% Typical in Lakewood. Best: 83.7%. Worst: 71.2%.
Strong Performers in Lakewood
- #9 Eye Care Center is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Lakewood: 77.4% Typical, 83.4% Best, 71.4% Worst.
- #10 Veterinary Clinic: 75.9% Typical across Lakewood; Best 82.4%, Worst 69.4%.
- #12 Opening a Smoke Shop in Lakewood shows 74.1% Typical survivability, 80.0% Best and 68.6% Worst.
- #13 Clothing Store (Ranked #13): 73.5% Typical in Lakewood. Best: 79.9%. Worst: 67.4%.
- #14 Coffee Shop is ranked #14 for top businesses to open in Lakewood: 73.5% Typical, 79.8% Best, 68.0% Worst.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Day Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Acupuncture Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Lakewood make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, picking the highest-scoring storefront in the neighborhood in Lakewood 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
- However, each business concept should be evaluated for fit within each potential location.
- Location is the part of survivability you can measure in advance: the concept, the pricing and the operator are yours to judge.
- Compare the Revenue Capture Score of each shortlisted address first: it is the top factor in choosing a location, and it estimates the revenue a business can capture there.
- Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront.
What businesses should open next in Lakewood?
The top businesses to open next in Lakewood:
- Day Care Centers: 79.5% Typical, 86.6% Best
- Chiropractor Offices: 81.2% Typical, 85.9% Best
- Acupuncture Clinics: 80.1% Typical, 85.3% Best
These rankings are based on the latest available data; check StreetSpring for real-time updates. 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. The 96.7% employment rate in Lakewood is a key signal of consumer health, and the 3.5% housing vacancy rate is another Census characteristic the model reads for the rankings above. New competitors open and close every week, changing the survivability landscape for every address in Lakewood. StreetSpring's regular updates mean you can always see the current score for any available storefront.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Seattle Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Seattle Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Day Care Center survivability across Seattle neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Lakewood.
What type of business should you rent your Lakewood storefront to?
Our 2026 survivability data for Lakewood shows that Day Care Centers, Chiropractor Offices, and Acupuncture Clinics rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.
- Location is the part of survivability you can measure in advance: the concept, the pricing and the operator are yours to judge.
- Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront. StreetSpring can show you which specific address in your portfolio scores highest for each tenant type.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Seattle Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Lakewood storefront to a Day Care Center?
According to our 2026 survivability model, a Day Care Center leads all business categories for Lakewood landlords: 86.6% Best and 75.0% Worst.
- Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront.
What should I consider when opening a business in Lakewood?
Don't commit to a storefront in Lakewood without first checking its Survivability Score: two addresses on the same block can carry different projected chances.
- Revenue Capture is where competition meets spending, and it's the number that matters most when choosing a location.
- These insights come from StreetSpring's exclusive, in-house forecasting models.
- The most current survivability data for Lakewood is on StreetSpring, and a free 10-minute trial is enough to check your specific address.
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 Seattle are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Seattle: /resources/data/seattle-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.