Facebook has inked a deal to lease two floors at Milstein Properties’ 335 Madison Avenue — the former Biltmore Hotel, between 43rd and 44th streets — and could expand to as much as 150,000 square feet there, sources told the New York Times. That’s enough to house up to 600 employees, at a time when the social network is reportedly getting ready for an aggressive hiring push for new advertising sales representatives in the city. Currently, the company has 15 open positions in New York and a 5,700-square-foot office in Midtown that’s already overcrowded. [NYT]

Howard Milstein is the head of Milstein Properties.

From the February issue: On a winter afternoon last month, sunshine streamed through the windows on the 33rd story of 30 Lincoln Plaza, illuminating the cleaning supplies and paint cans that occupy the high-ceilinged space. Innocuous though it may seem, this out-of-the-way spot is at the center of a bitter dispute now raging between the building”s tenants and the developer, the Milstein real estate family. In their quest to prevent the Milsteins from converting the rental building into condos, tenants have filed a lawsuit claiming that when 30 Lincoln Plaza was constructed three decades ago, the developer ignored city permits and added an illegal extra floor — the 33rd. Litigation is nothing new for the Milsteins. They are one of the city’s oldest and most successful real estate families, but also among the most controversial.  [more]