In my opinion, should seize this opportunity. You tell him about my feelings. And he certainly understands you:)

tell him how you feel. if he is your friend, he will understand

I've totally been in your situation before and it can be really hard. It is scary and it makes you feel really bad to break up with such a good guy. I've also done the "dropping hints" thing and allowed relationships to go on much longer than they should have. But in all reality, this just causes more pain for both you and for him, and will most likely leave him with a sour taste in his mouth for you.

Ending the relationship and explaining how you feel, although really hard and scary, will be the best way to try to be friends with him. Dragging out the pain and hurt and confusion on his end isn't going to make him want to be friends with you - it's going to make him bitter and angry.
Sitting down with him (or even calling him on the phone if you're much too nervous, although face-to-face is generally the best way) and explaining your thoughts and feelings is really the way to go. If it helps, you could even write out what you want to say, just to figure out all of your thoughts. That will make it easier to say what you want and need to say to him. Sometimes, when I get nervous or scared, I forget what I want to say, so planning and writing it ahead of time can really be helpful for me and it ensures that I don't give the wrong message by just saying "uh...yea" a ton.

Breaking up with someone doesn't make you a bad person, it's just something that happens in life. Give him time and space and don't rush a friendship either. He's going to go through a hard time, and it's hard to break up with someone that you care about. But if you respect him enough to explain to him what you're feeling then that makes it a lot easier for him to deal with his hurt and to become friends.

I know that feeling where a guy truly cares about you, but you just can't force that attraction. When I turned him down I got this miserable feeling in my stomach and just felt awful because I know how that feels and it really really sucks. I just can't stand being the person to hurt someone else.

Just tell him that you figured out that you care about him and everything, but you just don't have those feelings for him, and just be honest and tell him you don't have that attraction towards him, and that if it were there it would have happened a long time ago. Tell him you think he's a great guy, but you just prefer to be friends.

Oh I totally know how you feel ... it sucks.. I had this classmate who was like in love with me.. and I really liked him but not in that way.. it was a bit weird for a while but he was cool about it and things got back to normal..

Just be honest about how you feel .. tell him that you like him but not in that way and you want to still be friends... It's better to tell him now then to lead him on ..