Business Survivability in Hillcrest, San Diego
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Hillcrest is a Veterinary Clinic with a 73.8% 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 Veterinary Clinic in Hillcrest (73.8% average survival rate, 89.6% at best locations)
- Neighborhood rank: #66 of 83 neighborhoods in and around San Diego
- Neighborhood average: 61.7% 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
- Is Hillcrest 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 Hillcrest is a Veterinary Clinic with a 73.8% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 89.6% chance; next is a Chiropractor Office with a 81.1% chance, followed by an Eye Care Center with a 74.2% chance.
Is Hillcrest a good place to start a business?
StreetSpring ranks Hillcrest #66 of 83 neighborhoods in and around San Diego, with an average Survivability Score of 61.7% across the business types ranked there.
- At its best addresses in Hillcrest, the top-ranked business type scores 15.8 points above its own average in the neighborhood.
- Still, those same business types at weaker addresses in Hillcrest can score well below the neighborhood mean. Even the most viable concept here requires the right address to reach its potential.
- StreetSpring's model reads Hillcrest's 8.4% 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?
Using StreetSpring, you can identify the exact address in Hillcrest that gives your specific business concept the highest survivability score. StreetSpring's 2026 analysis identifies this area as the top location for a Veterinary Clinic in Hillcrest:
This map shows the optimal location for a Veterinary Clinic in Hillcrest based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis. StreetSpring's survivability scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool. The prediction model incorporates hundreds of location-specific factors, including competitive density, forecasted consumer spending, mobility patterns, and Revenue Capture Score.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Hillcrest?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veterinary Clinic | 89.6% |
| 2 | Chiropractor Office | 89.2% |
| 3 | Eye Care Center | 85.8% |
| 4 | Clothing Store | 84.6% |
| 5 | Convenience Store | 84.1% |
| 6 | Dentist Office | 84.0% |
| 7 | Bar | 84.0% |
| 8 | Hair Salon | 84.0% |
| 9 | Dermatology Clinic | 84.0% |
| 12 | Gym | 84.0% |
Ties at a good address: Dentist Office, Bar, Hair Salon, Dermatology Clinic and Gym 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: 73.8% on average across Hillcrest; best at 89.6%, challenging at 56.4%.
- #2 Opening a Chiropractor Office in Hillcrest shows 81.1% average survivability. Top locations reach 89.6%; lower-end sites show 58.6%.
- #3 Eye Care Center (Ranked #3): 74.2% average in Hillcrest. Best-case storefronts: 88.7%. Challenging locations: 56.4%.
- #4 Clothing Store is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Hillcrest: 76.5% chance on average, best at 85.0%, challenging at 55.3%.
- #5 Convenience Store: 73.4% on average across Hillcrest; best at 84.6%, challenging at 52.6%.
Strong Performers in Hillcrest
- #6 Opening a Dentist Office in Hillcrest shows 73.6% average survivability. Top locations reach 87.4%; lower-end sites show 57.3%.
- #7 Bar (Ranked #7): 73.5% average in Hillcrest. Best-case storefronts: 84.0%. Challenging locations: 49.4%.
- #8 Hair Salon is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Hillcrest: 73.5% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.4%.
- #9 Dermatology Clinic: 73.1% on average across Hillcrest; best at 87.4%, challenging at 57.3%.
- #12 Opening a Gym in Hillcrest shows 71.1% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 48.4%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Eye Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Hillcrest 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 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
- Site-specific factors can dramatically alter outcomes even within the same neighborhood.
- The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
- 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.
- Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type, not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.
What businesses should open next in Hillcrest?
The top businesses to open next in Hillcrest:
- Veterinary Clinics: 73.8% average survival rate, 89.6% at the best address
- Chiropractor Offices: 81.1% average survival rate
- Eye Care Centers: 74.2% average survival rate
StreetSpring's survivability scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool. We apply advanced machine learning to one of the largest commercial real estate outcome datasets in the country. 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. Hillcrest's 95.4% employment rate and 8.4% housing vacancy rate are two of the Census characteristics the model reads when it ranks business types here. Survivability scores are recalculated regularly as new competitors open and spending patterns shift: visit StreetSpring to see the current score for any open location in Hillcrest right now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the San Diego Business Survivability Rankings
- See the San Diego Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Veterinary Clinic survivability across San Diego neighborhoods
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?
StreetSpring's 2026 model places Veterinary Clinics, Chiropractor Offices, and Eye Care Centers at the top of the survivability rankings for Hillcrest, making them the safest long-term tenant bets for landlords here.
- The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
- Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type, not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood. Use StreetSpring to see the survivability score for any business type at your exact storefront address before you sign a lease.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in San Diego Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Hillcrest storefront to a Veterinary Clinic?
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, a Veterinary Clinic ranks as the top tenant type for your Hillcrest storefront: best-case locations show a 89.6% survival rate, while the most challenging addresses drop to 56.4%.
- Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type, not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.
What should I consider when opening a business in Hillcrest?
Start any location decision in Hillcrest with the Survivability Score: it combines 100+ location factors into one projected two-year chance.
- The single most important number in a location decision is the Revenue Capture Score, StreetSpring's proprietary estimate of the revenue a business can capture at a specific address.
- StreetSpring's forecasting tools are purpose-built for commercial location decisions and are not available through any publicly accessible data source.
- StreetSpring offers a free 10-minute trial of its survivability scores: see how your shortlisted Hillcrest addresses rank right now.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring's AI platform has analyzed thousands of business openings to identify success patterns. Aggregated survivability rankings for San Diego are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for San Diego: /resources/data/san-diego-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.