San Diego and Chula Vista are out of the sweepstakes to get Amazon's second headquarters, the company announced Thursday.
The Seattle-based internet giant plans to spend more than $5 billion on what it calls HQ2, which will provide 50,000 new high-paying jobs and support thousands of construction and other related positions. The company said 238 cities across North America submitted proposals.
A San Diego-area proposal was submitted in October by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. The plan proposed four potential sites in Chula Vista, downtown, Mission Valley and Otay Mesa.
RELATED: San Diego Joins Bidding War For New Amazon Headquarters
Chula Vista's City Council bolstered its bid by approving a $400 million incentive package for the massive online retailer. That package would have seen HQ2 incorporated into the city's Millenia mixed-use mega-development. The city also would have provided the company with 85 acres valued at $100 million and tax breaks of $300 million over 10 years.
But this morning, Amazon announced the 20 cities "that will proceed to the next step in the HQ2 process."
"Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough," the company said in a tweet. "All the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity."
Los Angeles was the only California city to make the cut, and Denver the only other city in the western United States.
The other finalists are Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Toronto, Miami, Atlanta, Raleigh, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Newark, New York City, Boston, the northern Virginia area and Montgomery County, Maryland.
The list of finalists matches what some analysts had believed — that the company would want to diversify geographically away from the West Coast since its main headquarters are in Seattle.
Amazon already has a large presence in San Diego after leasing more than 100,000 square feet of office space in University City.
