Amazon just announced who's still in the running for its $5 billion HQ2 — here are 15 of the most glaring omissions from the list

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Amazon has announced its short list of the cities it's considering for its second headquarters.
The e-commerce giant plans to invest $5 billion in the project.
We've rounded up the major cities that didn't make the cut despite making appealing pitches.

Amazon has narrowed down its list of possible HQ2 locations.

For 20 cities, that was amazing news. For the 218 other cities and regions that had put themselves in the running, it wasn't great.

"Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough — all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity," Holly Sullivan of Amazon's public policy department said in a statement. "Through this process, we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation."

While there's been a lot of focus on which cities are moving on to the next round in this exciting sweepstakes, we decided to take a look at the cities that we thought had a good chance for HQ2, but ultimately didn't make the cut.

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit had high hopes for the boost it would get as the site of HQ2. It didn't make the cut, but it was a close call, according to those involved.

"We were good but we weren't good enough on the talent front," Sandy Baruah, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, said to the Detroit Free Press, recounting feedback from Amazon.

Houston, Texas

Houston was hoping it would have something to look forward to in 2018 after a difficult 2017. Alas, it was not to be, though Amazon was not said to have cited a specific reason.

"I believe this is a wake-up call for Houston," Bob Harvey, CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, which submitted the bid to Amazon, said in a statement to local media. "While there has been growing momentum in the innovation space over the last couple of years, this is a clear indication that we have much more work to do as a region to grow our digital economy."

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis was not on the short list, a tough blow to local leaders who saw HQ2 as a way to unite the region.

Still, Sheila Sweeney, CEO of St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the bid submission "was not in vain," and that it may have spurred local businesses to think about development throughout the region.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider