The number of centered lozenge tilings of a symmetric hexagon

Propp conjectured that the number of lozenge tilings of a semiregular hexagon of sides $2n-1$, $2n-1$ and $2n$ which contain the central unit rhombus is precisely one third of the total number of lozenge tilings. Motivated by this, we consider the more general situation of a semiregular hexagon of sides $a$, $a$ and $b$. We prove explicit formulas for the number of lozenge tilings of these hexagons containing the central unit rhombus, and obtain Propp’s conjecture as a corollary of our results.