Gov. Mark Sanford has spent two months trying to broker a compromise to the tussle between USC and downtown hoteliers over the university’s proposed 117-room Inn at USC.

Sanford’s involvement was driven by his concern over the prospect of a state-supported university competing head to head against private businesses, according to his spokesman, Will Folks.

As a congressman, Sanford was the sole sponsor of a 1999 bill designed to block the government from issuing bonds to build hotels.

Both sides of the hotel debate publicly have embraced Sanford’s involvement. But hoteliers were thrilled when the governor entered the arena.

“I thought it was an extraordinary gesture on his part,” said hotel developer Bo Aughtry, who owns the Hampton Inn on Gervais Street.

Sanford was expected to come out against USC’s planned hotel at an August news conference but canceled the event at the urging of USC officials.

Instead, Sanford and chief of staff Fred Carter, on sabbatical from Francis Marion University, have hosted about a half-dozen meetings between USC and hotel officials.

Aughtry, who attended two sessions, said the negotiations are stalled on at least two points —how many rooms would be available for USC guests and USC’s unwillingness to say it won’t build more hotels.

“I think the fact that they won’t agree not to build more (hotels) goes against all the reasons they’ve given for wanting this hotel in the first place,” Aughtry said.

Other participants in the talks have included USC trustees Mack Whittle and Eddie Floyd; USC chief finance officer Rick Kelly; hotel association executive Tom Sponseller; and Clarion Townhouse co-owner Henry L. “Hank” Holliday III.

Holliday, who also owns Charleston’s Planters Inn, has been a prime mover behind the effort to stop the hotel. He has donated $4,000 to Sanford’s political campaigns since 1996.

Sanford and Carter have declined to discuss the negotiations.

“The negotiations haven’t been easy because, quite frankly, there’s not a lot of trust on either side,” Sanford spokesman Folks said. “I think we’re in a wait-and-see mode now.”

Aughtry said he’s not optimistic about a compromise before Wednesday’s City Council vote on the hotel plan. Lawsuits to hold up the hotel could be imminent, he added.

“I’d hate to see it come to that,” he said. “I think everyone hoped there would be some reasonable conclusion to this.”