So what in heaven’s name will happen to the convent? Sometime next fall, it will reopen to the public as the Celeste St. Paul Hotel and Bar (Celestestpaul.com), a 71-room boutique hotel that borrows its name from Mother Celestine, aka Ellen Howard, the convent’s first Mother Superior.

A century-old office building at a prime downtown St. Paul corner, with a music conservatory as its major tenant, has been sold and will become a boutique hotel, the buyer announced Monday.

A Northfield company that specializes in restoring and converting historic properties into hotels has bought the Exchange Building at Exchange and Cedar streets in downtown St. Paul.