A semi-trailer and equipment manufacturer has chosen Kentucky for its first U.S. facility in nearly 25 years in a project expected to eventually create nearly 300 full-time jobs, Gov. Andy Beshear said.

Fruehauf Inc. plans to open the new dry van trailer manufacturing operation in Bowling Green’s Kentucky Transpark, the governor said Monday.

Fruehauf’s production operations are currently located exclusively in Mexico, having closed its U.S. facilities in 1997, the governor’s office said. The new location in the south-central Kentucky city will allow the company to better serve its customers in the U.S. and Canada with components primarily manufactured offsite and assembled at the new location.

The company’s $12 million investment in the Bowling Green project is expected to create 288 full-time jobs in the years ahead.

Beshear said that Fruehauf’s Bowling Green operation will “build on our already diverse base of automotive-related companies in Kentucky.”