What businesses are most in demand in Kenwood?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Kenwood are Filipino Restaurants, Armenian Restaurants, and African Restaurants.

How much money could a business in Kenwood make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Kenwood could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~4% more than one of the worst locations.

Is Kenwood a good place to start a business?

Kenwood is ranked number 6 across neighborhoods in and around Chicago to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~85%. Strong business types at their best-match addresses in Kenwood consistently score ~2% higher than the overall neighborhood survivability average.

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

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 Kenwood maximize success.

Business Survivability in Kenwood, Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Kenwood is a Filipino Restaurant with a ~92% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•18 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Filipino Restaurant in Kenwood (~92% average survival rate, ~93% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #6 across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago

Neighborhood average: ~85% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Last reviewed by Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring — May 13, 2026

In this article:

Summary
Is Kenwood 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 Kenwood is a Filipino Restaurant with a ~92% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~93% chance; next is an Armenian Restaurant with a ~92% chance, followed by an African Restaurant with a ~92% chance.

Should you open a business in Kenwood?

**Pattern match:** Kenwood's neighborhood signature — captured across demographic, employment, and amenity features — most closely matches **Iveywood (San Francisco)** and **Egger Highlands (San Diego)**. The three share lower-income, low-rise built form, and low high-earner share, which helps explain why business types that succeed in those areas tend to translate to Kenwood.

**The pattern in Kenwood.** Of 93 tracked subtypes, African Restaurant leads at **92% average survivability** — yet within the neighborhood, sites for this subtype range **87-96%** (9-point spread). That spread is the real failure surface: pick the wrong block in Kenwood and a top-subtype play still scores in the bottom quartile. Meanwhile Kosher Restaurants are already saturated here — 0 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

Across all neighborhoods in and around Chicago, StreetSpring's data places Kenwood at #6 with a ~85% average Survivability Score.

Strong business types at their best-match addresses in Kenwood consistently score ~2% higher than the overall neighborhood survivability average.
Even so, the weakest addresses in Kenwood for those same business types can underperform considerably. StreetSpring's address-level scoring exists precisely to identify which specific storefronts make the difference.
StreetSpring's model incorporates Kenwood's 12.9% vacancy rate as a direct input: higher vacancy concentrations suppress foot traffic and reduce survivability for nearby businesses.

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

Where in Kenwood should you open a business?

Rather than relying on neighborhood averages, StreetSpring's scoring tells you which specific addresses in Kenwood give your concept the best odds of survival. The map below shows the highest-scoring storefront area for a Filipino Restaurant in Kenwood per 2026 data:

The locations that show up in our top-10 lists

Loading live map preview...

StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for a Filipino Restaurant in Kenwood. Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. The model evaluates 100 factors — from primary and secondary competition to forecasted spend, mobility flows, and local market share potential.

Check if this location is still available →

What are the best businesses to open in Kenwood?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Kenwood

Filipino Restaurant is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Kenwood: ~92% chance on average, best at ~93%, challenging at ~90%.
Armenian Restaurant — ~90%–~94% survivability range, with an average of ~92% across Kenwood.
Opening an African Restaurant in Kenwood shows ~92% average survivability. Top locations reach ~93%; lower-end sites show ~90%.
Southern Food Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~92% average in Kenwood. Best-case storefronts: ~93%. Challenging locations: ~91%.
Taiwanese Restaurant is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Kenwood: ~92% chance on average, best at ~94%, challenging at ~90%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Kenwood

Japanese / Sushi Restaurant — ~90%–~93% survivability range, with an average of ~92% across Kenwood.
Opening a Brazilian Restaurant in Kenwood shows ~92% average survivability. Top locations reach ~94%; lower-end sites show ~90%.
Chicken Shop (Ranked #8): ~92% average in Kenwood. Best-case storefronts: ~94%. Challenging locations: ~90%.
Diner is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Kenwood: ~92% chance on average, best at ~94%, challenging at ~90%.
Afghan Restaurant — ~91%–~93% survivability range, with an average of ~92% across Kenwood.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

Filipino Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →
Armenian Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →
African Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →

What you could earn opening a business in Kenwood

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, prioritizing survivability score in your site-selection process in Kenwood could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~4% 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.
Nothing influences a business's future more than its location.
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.
No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 700+ business types the way StreetSpring does.

What Kenwood needs more of (per our model)

The top businesses to open next in Kenwood:

Filipino Restaurants — ~92% average survival rate, up to ~93% at best locations
Armenian Restaurants — ~92% average survival rate
African Restaurants — ~92% average survival rate

Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. We apply advanced machine learning to one of the largest commercial real estate outcome datasets in the country. The 12.9% commercial vacancy rate in Kenwood means there is available space for new entrants — but it also signals that survivability depends heavily on choosing the right address within the neighborhood, not just the neighborhood itself. StreetSpring refreshes survivability scores every week to reflect new competition and updated spending data — see which locations in Kenwood are available right now and how they rank.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

Related Articles:

See the Chicago Business Survivability Rankings
See the Chicago Neighborhood Survivability Rankings

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

StreetSpring's 2026 model places Filipino Restaurants, Armenian Restaurants, and African Restaurants at the top of the survivability rankings for Kenwood — making them the safest long-term tenant bets for landlords here.

Nothing influences a business's future more than its location.
No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 700+ business types the way StreetSpring does. StreetSpring allows property owners to evaluate any address against 700+ tenant types — so you can prioritize the categories that score highest at your specific location.

Should you rent your Kenwood storefront to a Filipino Restaurant?

Yes — our 2026 model places a Filipino Restaurant at the top of the survivability rankings for Kenwood storefronts, with a best-case score of ~93% and a floor of ~90% at the most challenging addresses.

No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 700+ business types the way StreetSpring does.

What should I consider when opening a business in Kenwood?

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

A strong Revenue Capture Score reflects the ideal balance of manageable competition and robust consumer spending at that specific address.
These insights come from StreetSpring's exclusive, in-house forecasting models.
StreetSpring offers free access to its survivability scores — see how your shortlisted Kenwood addresses rank right now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring uses AI to predict business survivability across U.S. neighborhoods — trusted by real estate professionals and entrepreneurs nationwide. Aggregated survivability rankings for Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Build-out budget rules-of-thumb for this neighborhood

Factor	Where new owners get tripped up	Questions to ask before you sign
Permits & licensing	Assuming a 30-day permit timeline, hitting 90+ days, paying rent on a non-operating storefront.	Call the local zoning office before signing. Confirm your use is already permitted; if not, factor a 2-3 month variance timeline.
Competitor density	Counting only direct competitors and missing adjacent-category overlap (e.g. coffee shop near a bakery).	Map all businesses serving overlapping customer needs within a 5-min walk. Use StreetSpring's competitor view as a starting point.
Workforce availability	Hiring radius is smaller than you think — many neighborhoods can't staff a full team at standard wages.	Pull BLS wage data for your industry in this metro. Walk through your staffing plan with a local restaurant/retail operator before signing.

Full dataset for Chicago: /resources/data/chicago-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 Chicago business mix by survivability score — Treemap of business mix in Chicago — cell size = number of locations, color = average survivability score.

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

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

How we measure this: Foot traffic measured at the city-block level using a combination of pedestrian-network analysis and Walk Score.

**A bit of history.** Kenwood is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago in Illinois, United States. It is on the shore of Lake Michigan on the South Side of the city. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenwood%2C_Chicago))

**Daytime vs. resident population (Kenwood):** US Census LEHD workplace data shows Kenwood carries a **0.3× daytime/resident ratio** (a primarily-residential neighborhood with minimal daytime worker traffic), with median 1-mile workplace jobs of **6,096** (and **992** retail-sector jobs within that radius). A useful read on demand timing for any new storefront concept here.

Landmark anchor: Lake Shore Drive and 47th St is the public-space landmark in Kenwood that shapes a meaningful share of neighborhood foot-traffic.

**Economic context that bounds the demand environment in Kenwood:** Per ACS, neighborhood unemployment is **8.7%** (above the 24-metro neighborhood median). BLS QCEW shows the Chicago metro's average weekly wage at **$1,198** (below our 24-metro median). And Cook County permitted **5,308** new residential units in 2025 per Census BPS — a population-and-demand growth signal.

**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 Resources

Related:

Local Context FAQ

More questions answered with neighborhood-specific data from our 2026 corpus.

What is the median age in Kenwood, and what does that mean for businesses?

ACS data puts Kenwood's median age at 38, compared to the Chicago metro median of 37. That's older by 1 year — The demographic profile is close to the metro average, so business-type fit is driven by other factors like income and competition.

How does income in Kenwood compare to the rest of Chicago?

Median household income in Kenwood is approximately $87K, versus the Chicago metro median of $103K — below the metro by $15K. Lower median income tends to favor value-oriented retail, fast-casual food, and necessity-driven services.

What's the poverty rate in Kenwood, and what does it imply for businesses?

The poverty rate in Kenwood is approximately 21%, compared to the Chicago metro median of 12%. Elevated poverty constrains discretionary retail; survivability is highest for essential services and value-oriented operators.

How does Kenwood's vacancy rate affect commercial demand?

Approximately 13% of Kenwood housing units are vacant — above the Chicago metro median (8%). Elevated vacancy can mean softening demand or short-term opportunity to negotiate rent — verify against commercial-corridor activity before committing.

Is Kenwood more single-occupant or family-household?

Average household size in Kenwood is 1.8, versus 2.3 across the Chicago metro. Smaller households suggest more singles or couples — favorable for casual dining, fitness, and convenience retail.