Owner of former Chicago Rainforest Café building faces foreclosure lawsuit
The former landlord of the now-long-shuttered Rainforest Café in River North is now facing a $9.3 million foreclosure lawsuit.
According to court documents, the lawsuit alleges the building's owner defaulted on an $8.3 million loan. But the owner of the property told Crain's Chicago Business the lawsuit is over just one late payment, and he is working to refinance.
The Rainforest Café at 605 N. Clark St. closed in August 2020 amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ever since, the 22,000 square-foot building has been a vacant white elephant.
Much of the restaurant's exterior décor remains intact — rows of giant mushrooms, a mural facing Ohio Street with Rainforest Café animal mascots Cha! Cha! the tree frog, Rio the macaw, Tuki the elephant, Ozzie the orangutan, and Nile the crocodile. Meanwhile, as seen in Google Images, sumac shrubs — those weedy plants often found in empty lots — have grown alongside the mural to the point of nearly reaching the tops of the cartoon rainforest trees.
The former Rainforest Café is not alone among high-profile vacancies in that tourist-heavy area of River North. Just across an alley, the Hard Rock Café at 63 W. Ontario St. closed in January and has also been a vacant white elephant ever since.
Last year, a cannabis company was said to be moving into the former Rainforest Café. But this did not work out, and the owner claims the company later abandoned the property.