The State Farmers Market is moving to Shop Road, and USC intends to buy the current site.

In a 3-2 vote, the State Budget and Control Board on Thursday approved the project and its financial package.

USC intends to build playing fields and facilities for its nonrevenue sports programs, such as tennis, soccer and softball, said spokesman Russ McKinney. He said there might also be some space for game-day parking at the Bluff Road site, which is across from Williams-Brice Stadium.

Details on groundbreaking for the new $46 million, 196-acre market still need to be worked out.

Ideally, it would be complete and vendors could move in between January and March of 2007, said Hugh Weathers, state agriculture commissioner.

“Vendors have told us that those months are the market’s slowest time, so we’re trying to accommodate that,” he said.

USC, over the last five years, has moved from being noncommittal about its interest in the farmers market property to discussing it as a possible site for athletics fields or parking, possibly to free land at the campus core for a research campus.

USC would pay $14 million or the current appraised value, whichever is greater, the board decided.

Two members of the State Budget and Control Board, Gov. Mark Sanford and Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, voted against the project.

Both said it’s a worthy project initiated at a bad time.

“Given where we are and given what S&P came out with just last week, I don’t know if this is the right time to do it,” Sanford said, referring to a report by the credit rating agency, Standard and Poor’s, that expressed concern over the state’s borrowing.

Weathers said the state could get its investment back through rental income in as little as a decade.

Several wholesalers and vendors also attended the meeting, some supporting the move and some opposing it.

For months, vendors have expressed concerns about the Shop Road site’s lack of visibility from the interstate and being farther away from the city.

Richland County has designated $250,000 for 20 years to promote the new market.

Richland County Councilwoman Kit Smith said she was “excited that we’re going to bring a wonderful, regional tourist attraction to the county and hold on to existing business and help them expand.”

Reach Smith at (803) 771-8462 or gnsmith@thestate.com.