Business Survivability in Old Town, Washington DC
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Old Town is a Chiropractor Office with a 80.4% 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 Chiropractor Office in Old Town (80.4% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Neighborhood rank: #100 of 129 neighborhoods in and around Washington DC
- Neighborhood average: 66.7% 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 Old Town 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 Old Town is a Chiropractor Office with a 80.4% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is a Veterinary Clinic with a 77.3% chance, followed by a Clothing Store with a 72.7% chance. At a good address, Chiropractor Office is tied with Veterinary Clinic; the published file ranks it first on its average.
Is Old Town a good place to start a business?
Old Town is ranked number 100 of 129 neighborhoods in and around Washington DC to start a business, with an average 66.7% chance of lasting two or more years across the business types ranked there.
- In Old Town, the strongest addresses for the top-ranked business type sit 9.6 points above that type's average.
- Even so, the weakest addresses in Old Town for those same business types can underperform considerably. StreetSpring's address-level scoring exists precisely to identify which specific storefronts make the difference.
- A 95.9% employment rate in Old Town means a large share of local consumers have steady income: a strong underlying condition for discretionary spending businesses.
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 Old Town?
StreetSpring's address-level analysis reveals which specific storefronts in Old Town offer the strongest survivability odds for your business type. StreetSpring's 2026 analysis identifies this area as the top location for a Chiropractor Office in Old Town:
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of hundreds of location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for a Chiropractor Office in Old Town. For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. 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 Old Town?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chiropractor Office | 89.6% |
| 2 | Veterinary Clinic | 89.6% |
| 3 | Clothing Store | 84.6% |
| 4 | Hair Salon | 84.0% |
| 5 | Gym | 84.0% |
| 6 | Spa | 84.0% |
| 7 | Coffee Shop | 84.0% |
| 8 | Eye Care Center | 83.6% |
| 9 | Bar | 83.6% |
| 10 | Cafe | 83.6% |
Ties at a good address: Chiropractor Office and Veterinary Clinic are tied; Hair Salon, Gym, Spa and Coffee Shop are tied; Eye Care Center, Bar and Cafe 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.
Highest Survivability in Old Town
- #1 Chiropractor Office (Ranked #1): 80.4% average in Old Town. Best-case storefronts: 90.0%. Challenging locations: 60.7%.
- #2 Veterinary Clinic is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Old Town: 77.3% chance on average, best at 90.0%, challenging at 59.0%.
- #3 Clothing Store: 72.7% on average across Old Town; best at 85.0%, challenging at 51.7%.
- #4 Opening a Hair Salon in Old Town shows 75.1% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 51.6%.
- #5 Gym (Ranked #5): 71.9% average in Old Town. Best-case storefronts: 84.0%. Challenging locations: 49.8%.
Strong Performers in Old Town
- #6 Spa is ranked #6 for top businesses to open in Old Town: 71.8% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 49.8%.
- #7 Coffee Shop: 70.4% on average across Old Town; best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.9%.
- #8 Opening an Eye Care Center in Old Town shows 74.3% average survivability. Top locations reach 87.9%; lower-end sites show 59.4%.
- #9 Bar (Ranked #9): 71.8% average in Old Town. Best-case storefronts: 84.0%. Challenging locations: 50.7%.
- #10 Cafe is ranked #10 for top businesses to open in Old Town: 71.7% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.4%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Clothing Store: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Old Town make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, prioritizing survivability score in your site-selection process in Old Town 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.
- 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.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does.
What businesses should open next in Old Town?
The top businesses to open next in Old Town:
- Chiropractor Offices: 80.4% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Veterinary Clinics: 77.3% average survival rate
- Clothing Stores: 72.7% average survival rate
For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. 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. With Old Town's 95.9% employment rate factored in, the businesses best positioned to succeed here are those that benefit from a well-employed, spending-capable local consumer base. 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 Old Town right now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Washington DC Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Washington DC Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Chiropractor Office survivability across Washington DC neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Old Town.
What type of business should you rent your Old Town storefront to?
According to StreetSpring's 2026 data, the strongest tenant types for a storefront in Old Town are Chiropractor Offices, Veterinary Clinics, and Clothing Stores.
- Location is one of the few things about a new business you can measure before it opens.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does. With StreetSpring, you can rank every potential tenant type by survivability score at your property address before committing to a lease.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Washington DC Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Old Town storefront to a Chiropractor Office?
StreetSpring's data confirms a Chiropractor Office as the highest-survivability tenant type for Old Town. The best addresses show a 90.0% chance of lasting more than 2 years; less optimal addresses score around 60.7%.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does.
What should I consider when opening a business in Old Town?
Before committing to any location in Old Town, the highest-priority metric to check is the Survivability Score: it encodes every relevant location factor into a single, actionable number.
- 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.
- These insights come from StreetSpring's exclusive, in-house forecasting models.
- StreetSpring's address-level survivability data starts with a free 10-minute trial: begin with your top candidate locations in Old Town.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
Real estate professionals and business owners across 24 major metros use StreetSpring to ground their site-selection decisions in data, not guesswork. Aggregated survivability rankings for Washington DC are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Washington DC: /resources/data/washington-dc-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.