A Lawrence developer is asking City Hall to help him convince the U.S. Postal Service to move its main post office out of downtown.

Thomas Fritzel, with Gene Fritzel Construction Co., will ask city commissioners at their Tuesday meeting to send a letter to postal officials encouraging them to move the city’s main post office from 645 Vt. to the former Tanger Factory Outlet Center in North Lawrence.

Fritzel said a smaller post office could continue to be downtown to serve the needs of area residents, but he said many of the distribution operations at the main post office would be better situated closer to Interstate 70.

Fritzel has previously proposed using the post office site as the location for a new downtown library. But he said if city commissioners did not choose that location for a library, his company would be prepared to purchase the property and convert it into a new retail, office and residential project that would include new underground parking.

“In either case, downtown Lawrence benefits from additional parking and additional tax dollars,” Fritzel said in the letter.

Postal officials were noncommittal about the idea. Fritzel said Lawrence postmaster Judy Raney had told him the Postal Service would only consider moving from its current location if it received an official request from the city. Raney was unavailable for comment this week.

But Russell Rainey, a real estate specialist for the Postal Service, emphasized the Postal Service had reached no deal with Fritzel and perhaps never would.

“To the best of my knowledge, there’s no project approved to replace or move this facility,” Rainey said.

Fritzel has not said where he would propose to locate a smaller downtown retail post office location.

Fritzel leads one of four groups of private developers who have made proposals to the city for a new downtown public library. Those groups include members of The World Company, which publishes the Journal-World.

City commissioners meet at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.