Yes, rival gangs will extort/take over your territory. Succes chance depends on
1 hood skill
2 distance from your original HQ
3 on your strength rating: If you're the weakest gang at say 5%, nobody will agree to be extorted, while if you own 99% of total power it'll almost always work.

I ussually target whatever high-paying businesses I won't raid in the future (see my raiding topic elsewhere) and extort them in week 1. They can form a good income base.


When you purchase a building, a hood will be sent to run it. You can still view them via the gang in the diplomacy tab.
Which gang member is chosen depends on Business skill, and the lieutenant's organisation skill (very low sometimes choose the wrong people).
If you want to make certain they don't pick a valued gang member you need elsewhere, appoint a new lieutenant (with 1-2 stars Business) to make a new team and put prospective 'business hoods' in that team.


To set up an illegal business you must purchase the empty land in the center of the block. Then give the 'set up business' order and again a business hood is chosen to run things.

Make sure the front business makes sense, or it will be raises much sooner. A printing shop will have a hard time explaining the ladies in underwear from the whorehouse behind, while a printer hiding a counterfeit press is good for 10 or so weeks.

Remember to sack hoods arrested by the FBI so they can't incriminate you in interrogation (and save money).

Most of these things are covered in the game manual that can be downloaded from the Extras in GOG.