Amazon is breaking from its history of secret expansions with a public hunt for a second headquarters, spurring quick interest from cities eager to land a workforce of as many as 50,000 people.
Amazon.com Inc. has usually kept under the radar when approaching communities where it wants to build new warehouses, encouraging officials to keep the discussions quiet and even using code names on public documents to avoid detection. That approach has helped Amazon secure more than $700 million in tax breaks from states and cities since 2000, mostly to expand its warehouse and delivery operations, according to Good Jobs First, a nonprofit group that tracks business tax breaks.
