Once perhaps one of the least-known industrial thorough-fares in South Florida, the Miami River has in the past few years come upon a sort of Renaissance. Boasting some of the last parcels of waterfront property in the area, suddenly it is in high demand for residential development. But what few know, or seem to, is that the Miami River is tied with Tampa as the No. 4 port in Florida, and its 32 private terminals handle more than $4 billion in cargo a year, according to Miami River Commission staff. The River is Florida's only shallow draft port--a designation that attracts the many smaller ships coming out of the Caribbean that cannot dock at the Port of Miami.

Today, the river's heavy industrial uses are smacking up against towering residential developments, with a commercial port right in the middle. Developers are buying up the waterfront, and plans for shops, restaurants and a pedestrian-friendly riverwalk are in the final stages. At the same time, boat yards and shipping companies are in a struggle to expand and profit as they move forward with new clients and new technology.

While some say it emulates New York's Meatpacking District, where commerce meets chic, there is also a growing concern for maintaining the river's commercial aspects. The 5.5-mile Miami River remains an economically critical artery for the city and its future trade.

The river's 24 US Coast Guard-certified international shipping terminals, 16 recreational boatyards and four commercial fishing business sites have an annual $842 million economic impact on the State of Florida, according to a 2005 study conducted for the South Florida Water Management District by environmental engineering consultants Hazen and Sawyer PC. In Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties alone, river shipping activities generated 6,700 jobs and $44 million in tax revenues.

Any doubts about the river's industrial importance should be wiped away by the $74 million being spent to dredge the river, a project that began in September 2004 and is expected to be completed within the next two years. It is being funded 80 percent by the federal government, 10 percent by the State of Florida, 2.5 percent by the City of Miami, 2.5 percent by Miami-Dade County and 5 percent by the Florida Inland Navigation District, a special state tax district.

Right now, vessels traversing the river can only fill their cargo holds to about 50 percent capacity, and must travel during high tide to avoid hitting the bottom of Biscayne Bay or the river. The channel, which is supposed to be 15 feet deep, is filled with contaminated sediments and is only 11 feet deep. Dredging the river will allow vessels--at full capacity--to traverse the river at any time, says Brett Bibeau, managing director of the Miami River Commission, an 18-member board formed in 1998 by the Florida legislature to guide land use along the waterway. That will make the river more efficient, allowing businesses to hire more local employees, and increasing international trade and commerce, Bibeau adds.

The recent passage of DR-CAFTA should to lead to a boom in trade on the river, says Fran Bohnsack, executive director of the Miami River Marine Group, a private cooperative of cargo carriers and marine-related industry on the Miami River. Because the river's largest trading partners are in the Caribbean and the Dominican Republic, she says, in the past it was mostly an export port: imports were limited by quotas under old trade agreements. Under DR-CAFTA, those quotas will largely disappear. The Dominican Republic, in particular, is expected to see a large increase in its exports to the US. "The Dominican Republic has a strong labor market that can compete with China .... It's more goods back to the state ... more profit," Bohnsack says.

The largest marine cargo company on the river, Antillean Marine Shipping Corp., is responsible for about 80 percent of the river's Caribbean trade, Bohnsack says. The company is No. 7 overall among Florida's import and export container carriers; since 2004, the company has seen a 32 percent increase in imports and a 24 percent increase in exports in its Miami River business.

Eduardo Rodriguez, Antillean Marine's IT Director, who is responsible for logging cargo operations, believes the dredging will allow for about 60 or 70 percent more weight of cargo on the vessels the company owns.

"Right now we are restricted to about 1,500 to 1,600 tons when the tides permit .... We should be able to do another 800 to 900 tons on the vessels once the river has been dredged," he says.

Rodriguez adds that the company's most recent sales figures show a boom in Antillean's garment trade with the Dominican Republic, which he attributes to DR-CAFTA's early effects. Antillean would like to expand in order to handle an even higher volume of trade, he says, but needs more land in order to do so. Because of a lack of available land near its Miami River facilities, Antillean is looking at alternatives such as buying property off-site.