COLUMBIA, S.C. - Clemson University's private real estate foundation will buy up to 250 acres of property in Greenville to create an automotive research park, officials announced Wednesday.

The university's foundation will buy 103 acres for $6.9 million by June 30. The foundation also has options to buy 150 additional acres by 2007 for $14 million.

The foundation will pay for the land with a combination of private sources and loans, which will be repaid with revenues generated from the development of the campus.

State officials, Clemson University, BMW and Miami-based Rosen Associates Development Inc. have struggled to reach a deal on developing the park, which has been in the works for two years.

The proposal was dealt a setback this year after Gov. Mark Sanford questioned how much Rosen Associates was willing to put into the deal. The company controls 407 acres along Interstate 85 where the park is planned.

Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Clemson University has more land ownership and increased control over the project.

The majority of the 250 acres will be purchased from the estate of the late John D. Hollingsworth and related entities. About 56 acres will be purchased from Rosen Associates. Company president Cliff Rosen plans another development on an adjacent 150 acres, so the total project will be a 400-acre research campus.

"We've said from the beginning of this process that the auto park was going to happen and that it was going to happen in Greenville, period," Sanford said. "We've also said that there needed to be a larger vision for this project. This announcement closes the first part of that equation, and we're looking forward as soon as possible to unveiling that larger vision."

The final auto park deal, which includes a new graduate school of automotive engineering as well as a wind tunnel or other research facility that would attract automotive and motorsports companies, could come as early as mid-November, officials said.

State Commerce Secretary Bob Faith said the auto park will "capture folks' imaginations as it stimulates the Upstate's economic engine."

The project is estimated to cost $2.6 billion and create up to 20,000 jobs.