Stephen Rex Brown Andre Balazs speaking to East Fifth Street block association.

That book nook isn’t the only new development at The Standard, East Village: hotel higher-ups are moving forward with plans for a overhaul of the ground floor, and according to Department of Buildings records, initial construction will cost over $3 million.

Last week, The Standard filed two applications for construction work and zoning changes to 25-33 Cooper Square. The first, requesting permission to modify egress on the first floor as well as other general construction, estimates a price tag of $2.4 million. The second, for similar work, predicts an additional expenditure of $610,000.

The alterations will close the current second-floor bar (turning it into a massive a 2,054-square-foot space for guests) and transfer its liquor license to an outdoor cafe that would stay open until 2 a.m., according to the plan filed with the community board. (You can see that plan below.) A new restaurant will be created from the current restaurant space and first-floor bar space, and the lobby will be extended into the current garden on the corner of Fifth Street and Cooper Square.

Hotelier Andre Balazs presented the plans to the East Fifth Street block association in April, saying the changes would allow his hotel to succeed where its predecessor, the Cooper Square Hotel, had failed.

“The number-one thing we thought was silly and stupid was to create an eating and drinking establishment on the second floor,” Mr. Balazs said in April. The community board approved the plans in May.