Tom Mobley at the Washington Convention Center, the city's largest building and home to a $4 million art collection.

Mobley, who took over the reins of the $850-million center last December, just eight months after it opened, came to Washington from Chicago. In the Windy City, he spent 11 years as the head honcho of McCormick Place Convention Complex, one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

As Mobley nears his first anniversary in Washington, he's getting rave reviews, and the Washington Convention Center is being applauded by residents, businesses and visitors alike. Perhaps the most significant vote of approval came from the commander in chief himself: Just this year, the facility hosted George W. Bush and 7,500 of his closest pals for dinner—twice.

To say Mobley is bullish on the new Washington Convention Center is like saying Bill Clinton enjoys politics. "We've attracted a lot of new money—funds which would not otherwise be spent here—because Washington is a great destination to leverage additional visitor days in the city," Mobley says. This is ConventionSpeak for the fiscal benefit resulting from attendees bringing their families and sticking around the city (all the while, spending money) after their convention.

In addition to the facility's impressive stats (125,000 square feet of space in 70 meeting rooms, including a 52,000-square-foot ballroom), its economic forecasts are strengthened by the fact that travel in the U.S. has returned to pre-9/11 levels. "Overall, business travel is back up, tourism travel is back up, and convention travel is up because this building is open," Mobley says. "Based on what we hear from the hotels, Washington is receiving record occupancy numbers."

Unlike museums, stadiums and ballparks, convention centers do not gauge their success by the number of people flowing through their turnstiles. "In our business," Mobley explains, "we count hotel room nights, which are the number of nights people stay in a city as a result of attending a convention there." By 2005, the room nights produced by business booked in the convention center will have doubled, from 234,000 in 2002 for the old building to more than 533,000 for the new convention center.

Asked to cite the main differences between the old center and the new one, Mobley and Tony Robinson, the center's director of public affairs, laugh and say in unison, "Night and day!" Mobley points out the first obvious difference: At 2.3 million square feet, the new building is twice the size of the old one, which opened in 1983 and was also called the Washington Convention Center. The second major difference is that the new center is a state-of-the-art facility with amenities its predecessor lacked.

But perhaps one of the most significant differences for the city is that the Washington Convention Center was built to be part of the community, and the neighboring businesses have embraced it. Mobley points out that when the old building's 12 docks were all in use, trucks had to circle the area, as did buses bringing convention-goers from the hotels. "That," he says, "would drive the neighbors nuts. Now we have 60 docks. This is just a much better facility from every single aspect. We joke about ‘night and day,' but it really is a very big difference."

When a structure as large as a major convention center is built in an urban area, it has a significant impact, and Mobley says the planners of this center were acutely aware of that. "It was a major concern of ours that the community benefit from the change, because we were literally dropping a building the size of an aircraft carrier in the middle of a living neighborhood," he says. The center spent about $12 million on community assistance, including grant programs and job training. While much of that represented contractual obligations, Mobley believes the amount of money spent on protecting and stabilizing the neighborhood set a record, and it shows in the regeneration of the neighboring blocks.

"For my first six months here," Mobley says, "when I walked to work up Seventh Street, it looked like there was a new restaurant opening every few weeks. And when these large residential units in the Penn Quarter-Chinatown neighborhood open up, you'll have another couple thousand housing units, and the 24-hour activity will generate even more restaurants and shops."

Mobley, who ran convention centers in Denver, Baltimore and Jacksonville before moving to Chicago, also cites the positive impact of the local transportation system. "There are three components to convention planning," he explains. "A large enough facility, enough hotel rooms, and the ability to bring people in and out of your city. In Washington, we have all three. And the ‘lift'—the availability of Reagan National, Dulles and BWI—is a major plus. I believe we have as much lift as any city in the country, and that's critical to our success, as is the convenience of Metro."

One of the requirements of Mobley's job is that he live in the District, and he has embraced the opportunity to settle into a Washington's neighborhood. "I'm an urban person, and I have always lived downtown," he says. Mobley and his wife live on Capitol Hill, which is a good central location for a man who oftentimes has to be somewhere quickly. "When my wife flies into Reagan National Airport, she calls me from the baggage claim area, and 10 minutes later, I'm there. How can you beat that!"