Amazon’s Hunt for Office Hubs Doesn’t Rule Out High-Tax Locales

Apparently, some people don’t mind paying high taxes.

Amazon.com Inc.’s highly publicized search for a second headquarters is hurtling toward a conclusion, with the e-commerce giant nearing deals to open new offices in two locales.

One is an area of northern Virginia where homes are expensive but taxes are relatively low. The other is Long Island City in the New York borough of Queens, a place that combines scarce housing with some of the highest state and local taxes in the U.S.

The choice of Long Island City, in particular, would serve as a rebuke to conventional wisdom that corporate ...