HUNTINGTON BEACH, along with Long Beach, was in the competition to land Amazon’s planned second headquarters, as are Garden Grove-Santa Ana (Flickr/Mike MacKenzie).

Amazon may be conquering the world, but not from a huge new second North American headquarters in Garden Grove or Huntington Beach.

The online goliath on Thursday morning announced its 20 finalists for the “HQ2” site out of 238 applicants, and the lone West Coast survivor was Los Angeles. The other 29 ranged from Colorado to Massachusetts and Florida.

Garden Grove paired with Santa Ana in its bid for the multi-billion project, offering the Willowick Golf Course site owned by Garden Grove but within Santa Ana city limits.

Huntington Beach’s “Amazon Coast” proposal paired Surf City with Long Beach, with its bid focused on the use of existing office space.

Also considered and rejected was a proposal from Irvine.

“Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” read a tweet from the Seattle headquarters.

When Garden Grove’s interest in the project was first made public in October, Mayor Steve Jones said that while it was a “long shot” effort, “I don’t think it’s an exercise in futility,” he said. He suggested that the research and groundwork needed to woo Amazon would also be useful in attracting other high-tech firms such as Blizzard and Broadcom which might be interested in relocation or expansion.