Tom Muldoon | photo © Katharine Gilbert
By Sabina Clarke
After 25 years as president of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, PCVB, Brooklyn native and now die-hard Philadelphian, Tom Muldoon—undoubtedly, one of the most
well-liked and well-respected businessmen in the City, has retired from his post at the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, PCVB. (No surprise here, since I discovered that he was president of his class in grammar school, high school and college.)
Muldoon’s tenure oversaw some historic developments for the City such as the building of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, completed in 1994 on schedule and on budget and its expansion, which will be completed this month, March 2011—catapulting Philadelphia’s hall from the 24th to the 14th largest hall in the country.
Other major achievements during Muldoon’s tenure include the establishment of the Multicultural Affairs Congress, the Philadelphia Sports Congress and the Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences Congress—all divisions under the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, PCVB.
However, the City seems to be having a hard time saying goodbye to Muldoon. Just in the past several months, he has been honored twice. First, in a surprise presentation at PCVB’s annual luncheon in November at the Philadelphia Marriot Hotel with1, 200 guests in attendance and later at a January ‘Fun-raiser’ cocktail and dinner party to raise funds for the renovation of the baseball field in the Francisville section of the City that is being rehabbed and renamed in his honor as “ Muldoon’s Field of Dreams.”
Muldoon, an inveterate baseball aficionado has often said that if he could, he would build a baseball field. An astute colleague seized the opportunity to share Muldoon’s dream with others and planted the seed to build a baseball field for Muldoon.
The search began all over the city for abandoned and dilapidated fields in need of rehab until a field in a five block square in a predominantly African American neighborhood bordering the Fairmount section of the city, was settled on.
At PCVB’s annual luncheon, a signature tee-shirt inscribed with “Muldoon’s Field of Dreams” was presented to Muldoon by two children who play baseball on the Francisville field. By this time, it was announced that a fence had already been built around the field and a new irrigation system installed at the cost of $100,000 dollars.
One of Muldoon’s childhood friends from New York, Joe Torre, joked about Muldoon’s not being able to hit a baseball; then Mayor Nutter presented the Philadelphia Bowl to Muldoon for his contributions to the hospitality Industry — the highest honor bestowed on an individual by the City.
Other testimonials were given by Nick Benedictis, current chairman of PCVB who called Muldoon’s contributions to the City “unprecedented” and by A. Bruce Crawley, past chairman of PCVB and Bill Giles, Phillies chairman and also former PCVB chairman.
Two months later, at Muldoon’s official retirement party, the January 28th ‘Fun-raiser’, 300 guests braved a snowstorm that was almost a white-out. Among those in attendance were the Rev. John McNamee, Mayor Nutter, and Paul Decker, president of the Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau while another 200 scheduled guests were snowbound and had to cancel. Some revelers stayed overnight at the hotel including Muldoon who said (laughing), “I was at the bar at quarter to two.” It was quite a party.
Recently, I asked Muldoon about his career at PCVB and his plans for the future after he returns from a Florida vacation in April.
SC How has Philadelphia changed since 1985 when you became President of PCVB?
TM Actually, it didn’t really begin to change until 1994 when the Pennsylvania Convention Center was completed. Also the Republican National Convention in 2000 was a boon and the tax abatement helped bring tremendous growth to center city. In 1993, there wasn’t a sidewalk café, now there are two hundred forty sidewalk cafes in Philadelphia. It is a different city
SC Other than the businesses involved how do the citizens of Philadelphia benefit from the influx of dollars that come in from the tourist trade?
TM With more visitors and trade conventions coming to town there is a demand for more hotel rooms and restaurants with more dollars being flushed into the local economy. The economic impact can also be assessed when, on an average, a visitor here for a convention spends $300 a night and usually stays for about 4 nights–spending about $1200 per person. Also, roughly 80 percent of the workforce in both hotels and restaurants live in the city; offering employment opportunities to city residents.
SC What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment at PCVB?
TM From a physical standpoint, it would be the completion and expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. This and the Marriot Hotel and the cleaning up of the center city district by Paul Levy and the creation of new restaurants, put people on the streets. And with Mayor Rendell, people in the city and people in the suburbs began to believe in center city again.
Also, when I was chairman of the Civic Center, working with Paul Levy and Bill Hankowsky and Congressman Bill Gray, who procured the funding, we were able to get a train stop at University City—and because the University of Pennsylvania got a stop, then Temple University got a train stop too.
SC Let’s talk about the Multicultural Affairs Congress that you instituted. What was its objective?
TM What began as an outreach to the African American community expanded to the Latin, Asian and Native American markets. Our purpose was to bring people of different nationalities together-to create a dialogue. We even had a woman Indian chief—I guarantee that does not happen in too many different cities. We have the most successful multicultural tourism and convention initiative in the country.
SC How is international tourism market in Philadelphia?
TM Until we secured funding for the region’s first international tourism marketing campaign, there were no funds. So, we worked to secure funding and went to Manny Stamatakis at the Delaware River Port Authority. We went from no marketing dollars to $750,000 dollars over a four-year period beginning in 2001. Then we got a grant from the state for about a million dollars.
Eight years later, we are seeing record numbers of international visitors from PCVB’s target markets. The City moved from 21st to 11th place in the U.S. in international visitation with the largest increase of all U.S. cities in 2008
SC What are the most popular conventions here?
TM Health care conventions are the biggest draw here. This city is best for continuing medical education. In March, the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses will be the first convention to use the expanded Convention Center.
SC What do international tourists come to this city for?
TM Different countries come for different reasons. The English and Irish, mostly younger tourists, come for a few days to party and shop. The French and the Italian usually come for culture—to visit the Art Museum and also the Barnes Museum which will open on the Parkway. The German, Austrian and Swiss have a tremendous interest in history so they are more likely to hop in a car and go to Lancaster, PA.
SC How did you get into the hotel industry and what is your degree in?
TM I graduated from Manhattan College with a degree in American History and the day after I graduated, I started at the Loew’s Hotel chain at Howard Johnson’s motor lodge on 8th Avenue in New York which was operated by Loew’s and was a block from Madison Square Garden.
So, these old fighters and trainers used to come in and ask me if I was related to “The Great Muldoon.” I knew that they were referring to my great-granduncle William Muldoon who served under General William Tecumseh Sherman in the Union Army during the Civil War and was the first Boxing Commissioner.
He also trained the famous boxing champ John L Sullivan. My great-granduncle was also a former wrestler and former New York City cop whose job was to manage the ‘rackets.’ I found some humor in this since, as a college student, a hundred years later, I organized parties at local hotels—what we called ‘rackets’ which later were organized for profit.
All the college social functions were held at hotels. So, the idea of working in a hotel seemed natural to me. After three years of working six nights a week and making only $115 a week, I left and went to the Warwick Hotel and began moving up the ladder.
At 28, I became the youngest hotel manager in New York City history. They sent me to the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco and back to Loew’s City Squires. I also managed the Barclay Hotel in New York for five years.
Then when I came to Philadelphia, I worked at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel, which is now the Sheraton City Center and then the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau
SC Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, PCVB sponsored Muldoon’s Saloon at the Boathouse at the Rittenhouse Hotel with celebrity bartenders like Tug McGraw, David Iams and Father John McNamee to benefit Sister Mary Scullion’s Project Home-will there be one again this year?
TM Last year was the 30th year for Muldoon’s Saloon and I doubt we will have it again this year—but you never know. Also, separate from the Philadelphia event, we have done Muldoon’s Saloon connected to the Convention Center’s Professional Conference Management Association, This year, we did it in Las Vegas and other years it has been in Toronto, Seattle, New Orleans and Dallas. The celebrity bartenders are all the people who book the Health Care Conventions
SC What are your plans for the future?
TM I will be a consultant for PCVB, and do whatever Jack Ferguson (incoming President and CEO of PCVB) wants me to do. The Union League has also hired me for business development. They have an interest in bringing in members that would use the hotel rooms and the banquet space—not just as a social club. I would be the link with the Convention Bureau and the hospitality community.
And, I have been hired by the Big Five athletic directors to be chairman of Big Five Basketball which includes Penn, Villanova, Temple, LaSalle and St. Joe’s. What they want me to do is bring in a corporate sponsor and raise the visibility of the Big Five. And I am dealing with some of the colleges in New York so maybe we can do something between New York and Philadelphia
SC Are there any other kudos for Philadelphia?
TM Lightfair International originally slated for New York City, announced that it will move its May 2011 tradeshow to Philadelphia. It is the world’s largest architectural and commercial lighting tradeshow and is expected to draw more than 23,000 attendees using more than 12,800 hotel room nights with an estimated impact of $23 million to Philadelphia. We have companies here that do lighting all over the world.