E-commerce giant Amazon said Friday that it has signed a lease on a 335,000 square feet office space in New York City's new Hudson Yards neighborhood, which will provide offices for 1,500 employees. The announcement comes less than a year after the company decided to pull its planned second headquarters, known as HQ2, from Queens due to controversy over a financial package given to the company for the expansion.

The expansion into Hudson Yards did not give Amazon any special tax breaks or financial incentives. The HQ2 project in Queens would have given the company $1.5 billion in financial incentives if the company created 25,000 jobs in the area.

“Won’t you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway - *without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said about the expansion.

Ocasio-Cortez was once of the loudest voices against Amazon's HQ2 effort in New York City, saying that it is wrong for Amazon, a billion-dollar company, to receive financial incentives when that money could be better spent on transport and public services for New York's local communities.

On Feb. 14, Amazon announced it would cancel the planned headquarters due to the opposition to the project, with the HQ2 being built in Arlington, Virginia.

“You went from 25,000 Amazon jobs in your district to just 1,500 being offered OUTSIDE your district. You’re an idiot if you think this is a success for your constituents," Caleb Hull, a director at Republican consulting group Targeted Victory, tweeted to Ocasio-Cortez.

Ocasio-Cortez has shot back at her critics, saying that the 25,000 jobs that Amazon promised were not a "guarantee."

Amazon is the largest online retailer in the U.S. and continues to expand across the country to meet its logistics and distribution needs.

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