The mall opened in September 1970, right after Labor Day, with 79 stores. Among these stores was the first location of the pizzeria chain Sbarro. A two-screen cinema was also opened along with Kings Plaza, while a marina on Mill Basin was expected to open the next year. The mall was the first in the city to be fully enclosed and air conditioned. In protest of the new mall, local residents barricaded nearby side streets to prevent traffic congestion from spilling over to residential blocks. The mall had expanded to 125 stores by the following year. The first "professional dinner‐theater" in Brooklyn opened at Cooky's Steak Pub, located within the mall, three years later. The number of visitors grew during the mall's first decade of operation. Although Kings Plaza's owners did not release official visitation figures, by 1983, there were 20,000 cars passing through the mall's parking lot each day, and the city was earning $12 million per year from sales tax collected at each of the 150 stores. However, both merchants and shoppers expressed concerns about theft at Kings Plaza, and that year, the mall expanded its private security force.