Business Survivability in Hillcrest, New York City

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Hillcrest is a Veterinary Clinic with a 73.6% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

•13 min read

Quick Summary

  • Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
  • Best business: a Veterinary Clinic in Hillcrest (73.6% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
  • Neighborhood rank: #54 of 180 neighborhoods in and around New York City
  • Neighborhood average: 63.6% 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: October 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Hillcrest is a Veterinary Clinic with a 73.6% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is an Eye Care Center with a 71.5% chance, followed by a Chiropractor Office with a 74.4% chance.


Is Hillcrest a good place to start a business?

Hillcrest is ranked number 54 of 180 neighborhoods in and around New York City to start a business, with an average 63.6% chance of lasting two or more years across the business types ranked there.

  • In Hillcrest, the strongest addresses for the top-ranked business type sit 16.4 points above that type's average.
  • But at poorly chosen addresses within Hillcrest, 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 Hillcrest's 6.8% 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 Hillcrest?

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

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According to StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, this circle outlines the best area for a Veterinary Clinic in Hillcrest. These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. StreetSpring's prediction model analyzes hundreds of factors across competition, spending on the specific potential business, projected revenue, projected market share, Revenue Capture Score, mobility patterns, and many more.

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What are the best businesses to open in Hillcrest?

#Business typeChance of lasting two or more years at a good address
1Veterinary Clinic87.9%
2Eye Care Center86.2%
3Chiropractor Office85.3%
4Convenience Store84.1%
5Spa83.6%
6Cafe83.5%
7Clothing Store83.2%
8Coffee Shop83.2%
10Hair Salon83.1%
11Bar83.1%

Ties at a good address: Clothing Store and Coffee Shop are tied; Hair Salon and Bar are tied. A tie is a tie: the rank column is the published file's order, which looks at the average and the best address 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 Hillcrest

  • #1 Veterinary Clinic: 73.6% on average across Hillcrest; best at 90.0%, challenging at 56.0%.
  • #2 Opening an Eye Care Center in Hillcrest shows 71.5% average survivability. Top locations reach 89.2%; lower-end sites show 56.0%.
  • #3 Chiropractor Office (Ranked #3): 74.4% average in Hillcrest. Best-case storefronts: 90.0%. Challenging locations: 58.1%.
  • #4 Convenience Store is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Hillcrest: 74.2% chance on average, best at 85.0%, challenging at 49.4%.
  • #5 Spa: 70.5% on average across Hillcrest; best at 83.6%, challenging at 48.4%.

Strong Performers in Hillcrest

  • #6 Opening a Cafe in Hillcrest shows 72.1% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 51.2%.
  • #7 Clothing Store (Ranked #7): 71.1% average in Hillcrest. Best-case storefronts: 85.0%. Challenging locations: 49.4%.
  • #8 Coffee Shop is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Hillcrest: 68.6% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.9%.
  • #10 Hair Salon: 70.1% on average across Hillcrest; best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.0%.
  • #11 Opening a Bar in Hillcrest shows 66.5% average survivability. Top locations reach 83.6%; lower-end sites show 48.0%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally


How much money could a business in Hillcrest make?

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, identifying the optimal address for your business type in Hillcrest 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 one of the few things about a new business you can measure before it opens.
  • StreetSpring's Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when comparing locations.
  • Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront.

What businesses should open next in Hillcrest?

The top businesses to open next in Hillcrest:

  • Veterinary Clinics: 73.6% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
  • Eye Care Centers: 71.5% average survival rate
  • Chiropractor Offices: 74.4% average survival rate

These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. StreetSpring's training dataset includes millions of transactions and business lifecycle events. 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 93.0% employment rate in Hillcrest is a key signal of consumer health, and the 6.8% 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 Hillcrest. StreetSpring's regular updates mean you can always see the current score for any available storefront.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

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Frequently Asked Questions

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


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

The analysis is clear: in Hillcrest, Veterinary Clinics, Eye Care Centers, and Chiropractor Offices consistently score highest on survivability, giving landlords the best chance of retaining tenants for two or more years.

  • Location is one of the few things about a new business you can measure before it opens.
  • Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront. Run your specific address through StreetSpring to see which tenant categories give you the best odds of stable, long-term occupancy.

Related: See How Landlord Representatives in New York City Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity


Should you rent your Hillcrest storefront to a Veterinary Clinic?

Yes, StreetSpring's analysis finds that a Veterinary Clinic would be the best type of business to rent your storefront to, with a potential 90.0% chance of lasting more than 2 years; however depending on your location, the chances could drop to a 56.0% chance.

  • 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 Hillcrest?

Before committing to any location in Hillcrest, the highest-priority metric to check is the Survivability Score: it encodes every relevant location factor into a single, actionable number.

  • The Revenue Capture Score is the most important factor in choosing a location: it is StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
  • These predictions are generated by StreetSpring's proprietary machine learning system, validated against hundreds of thousands of real business outcomes.
  • StreetSpring's live survivability scores start with a free 10-minute trial: check your specific address now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.


StreetSpring analyzes millions of data points with AI to forecast business survivability. 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.