- Palmer Square, the heart of Princeton's shopping and dining district, will soon be home to another brewpub.

The historic building that once housed the old post office on 20 Palmer Square East will be transformed into a three-story brewpub with seating in the basement, first floor and on a final mezzanine level, according to plans filed with the Princeton Planning Board this month.

The brewpub and restaurant will be open from 11:30 a.m. until 1 a.m. on weekdays and from 11:30 a.m. until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to a report provided by the planning board. They plan to serve their own brewed draft beers, wine and liquor.

David Eichler, President of LCOR Ventures, a California-based company, is listed in documents as the buyer of the property. LCOR Ventures has no connection to LCOR, a real estate company based in Berwyn, PA, according to an LCOR representative.

The brewpub is a big change for the building, which was home to the town's post office for years. When the post office moved to its new Nassau Street location last year, the historic building on 20 Palmer Square East sat vacant.

But it won't remain that way for long and, when the brewpub opens, much of the historic structure of the old post office building, which was constructed in the 1930s, will remain the same, according to documents.

The height, width, windows, main entrance, roof and facade materials and color will all remain unchanged from their present state, documents said.

Only the loading dock on the Palmer Square East side of the building will be replaced with a transparent entrance. Mills and Schnoering Architects, a group handling the renovations and changes to the building, addressed its historic nature in a letter included in the planning documents this month.

They said that the United States Postal Service and the New Jersey Historic Trust negotiated an easement to preserve the key historic aspects of the building. The developments proposed as part of the brewpub plan fit within that easement, they said.

"The goal of the proposed work at the Palmer Square Post Office is to adapt the building to a new use while protecting the significant, character-defining historic fabric called out in the easement," they said in the letter, adding that the general form of the building, the materials and the openings will all be preserved.

Though the physical structure of the building will not change significantly, the inside of the building will serve a very different purpose than before. Developers plan to have a basement area with seating for 75 people and a brew house. On the first floor they're planning several dining rooms, which will seat around 60-70 people each, according to plans. One dining room on the Palmer Square side of the building is labeled the "mural dining room," and will feature an historic mural. The top mezzanine level will hold around 40 seats, according to the plans.

Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.