text: Opening The office tower was dedicated on October 12, 1977. Stubbins gave an opening speech in which he described the building as a "skyscraper for the people". Almost all the space within the retail complex at the building's base, known as the Market, had been rented, and over 300 retailers had applied to operate storefronts in the Market. The majority of the Market's space was rented by household furnishings retailer Conran's, which occupied , but some of the other retailers included restaurants serving cuisine of various countries. Citibank planned to occupy , or 26 stories, moving its offices to the building from five other addresses in Midtown. The remaining stories were occupied by a variety of firms, including those in law and accounting, as well as the Consulate-General of Japan and technology company IBM.
  At the time of Citicorp Center's dedication, the final design features of St. Peter's Church were being installed. St. Peter's Church was dedicated on December 4, 1977, and the Nevelson Chapel was separately dedicated the same month. Initially, the tower's slanted roof created an ice problem during winter, as snow and ice would slide down the roof onto the sidewalk. Furthermore, the shopping concourse was initially only lightly used and largely unknown to the public. The plaza on Lexington Avenue opened by July 1978. In the complex's early years, St. Peter's Church encountered fiscal deficits because of high utility costs, as well as inflation and lack of investment experience, even though the church earned money from renting out some of the other space it owned at Citicorp Center. By 1980, Citicorp counted 25,000 daily visitors to the shopping concourse, but some of the stores had already closed down because of a lack of patronage.