A baby is due in Minneapolis and you are the grandparents-to-be, somewhere else, working out how to be here for it. The due date is a guess, the hospital stay is short, and the weeks afterward are when a new family most wants an extra pair of hands — which means you are looking at a stay of two, three, maybe six weeks, with an arrival date you cannot pin down. A hotel room gets expensive and cramped at that length; the new parents’ couch is not a plan. A furnished studio downtown, booked by the week or the month with no lease, is the answer we built Oakland’s on 9th to give.
Why a furnished studio beats a hotel for a grandparent stay
Every studio at Oakland’s on 9th is fully furnished with a full kitchen — refrigerator, stovetop, microwave, dishes, pots and utensils — so you can cook the soup, freeze the casseroles, and run the meal train for the new parents from your own stove rather than a restaurant table. Free 24-hour on-site laundry means the endless small loads a newborn generates can happen on your floor, not theirs. WiFi, all utilities, individual heat and air conditioning, and a coffee maker with coffee and tea are included in the rate, and there is nothing to sign: you can stay a night, a week, or a month with no contract, and monthly stays carry the lowest rate. If the baby comes early or late, you extend or shorten — the stay flexes with the due date instead of the other way round.
Three studio tiers cover most budgets: Good is the compact, most affordable option; Better adds living and work space with a large desk; Best is the largest, with city views, a bay window, an electric fireplace and a queen bed. Our guide to the three tiers spells out the differences. Some studios are pet friendly, so the dog can come too if the new parents would rather not add a pet to a house with a newborn.
How close is it to where the baby is being born?
Close. Oakland’s on 9th sits at 215 South 9th Street, in the exact center of downtown, and two of the city’s main birth hospitals are within easy reach. The Birth Center at Hennepin Healthcare (HCMC), at 701 Park Avenue, is a few blocks east of the building — a walk, even in winter, and the hospital has a neonatal intensive care unit on site. We already host a lot of families with someone at HCMC, and grandparents waiting on a birth there are the happiest version of that guest.
The other big one is The Mother Baby Center at Abbott Northwestern and Children’s Minnesota, whose dedicated entrance is at 902 East 26th Street, between 10th Avenue and Chicago Avenue — roughly two miles south of us, straight down Chicago Avenue. Visitors park in the Blue/26th Street ramp beside the entrance, and the center’s own page notes that families of patients staying multiple days can pick up an information packet on discounted parking at the third-floor Celebration Plaza desk. If you would rather not drive, Metro Transit’s D Line rapid bus runs down Chicago Avenue from downtown; the trip planner will give you the current options from 9th Street. Before you show up with balloons, read the center’s visiting standards; hospital visitor rules change, and the new parents will thank you for knowing them.
What to know before you book — including the stairs
We would rather say this plainly than have you discover it on arrival: Oakland’s on 9th is a historic 1889 brownstone and access to the studios is by stairs — there is no guest elevator. For most grandparents that is a non-issue and the restored staircase is one of the building’s pleasures; if stairs are a real concern, call us at (612) 314-5124 before booking and we will talk it through honestly. Check-in is contactless — you receive a personal keycode for the building and your studio before arrival, so a 2 AM “the baby’s here, we’re driving up now” arrival works without anyone waiting at a desk — and staff are on site day and night, reachable by phone or message. Check-out is 10:00 AM, with late check-out available for an added fee when arranged in advance.
Parking is right at the door in Lot 215, which matters when you are ferrying a car seat, a stroller and three bags of baby gifts; our parking guide covers the week-and-month options. Downtown itself does the rest: Target on Nicollet Mall for diapers and wipes, the Skyway system a block away for winter errands (we are not connected to it — you walk one block), and plenty of restaurants for the nights the new parents want an hour to themselves. If you are still deciding whether to bring the car at all, this guide is for you.
A few grandparent-tested tips for the stay
Book a window that starts a week before the due date and runs at least two weeks after, then adjust — no lease means changing the dates is a phone call away. Cook in batches the first quiet afternoon; a freezer full of labeled meals is the most useful gift you will give. Give the new family evenings and take the mornings: a grandparent who arrives at 8 AM with coffee, holds the baby for two hours, and leaves at lunch is the grandparent who gets invited back. And if the stay stretches — a slow recovery, a second visit at the three-month mark — you can book the same studio again as easily as you booked it the first time.
Ready to be here when the baby is? Check availability and book a furnished studio at Oakland’s on 9th, or call us at (612) 314-5124 — tell us the due date and we will help you build a stay around it.
Keep reading: Can you get to a Gophers basketball game from downtown Minneapolis without a car? The 2026–27 season at The Barn