The Shops At Prudential Center

Boston, United States

3.3

Open now

21 reviews

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 617-236-3100
Website:
www.prudentialcenter.com
Address:
800 Boylston St, Boston, MA, 02199
b/t Gloucester St & Fairfield St
Back Bay
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
360 ftBoylston St opp Gloucester St
490 ftRing Rd @ Boylston St
710 ftRing Rd @ Huntington Ave
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Bussiness info

Parking
Valet, Garage, Validated
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes

Today

Today 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Open now
Local time (Boston) 1:15 PM Friday, June 13, 2025

Business hours

Monday 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Tuesday 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Wednesday 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Thursday 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Friday 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am – 8:00 pm

Description

Specialties

The Shops at Prudential Center is located between Boylston Street and Huntington Avenue in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay. The 23– acre office and retail complex features over 75 shops and restaurants including 5 Napkin Burger, Saks Fifth Avenue, and The Top of the Hub on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Tower. Visitors to Boston can enjoy the Skywalk Observatory, Boston Duck Tours, trolley tours, the area’s largest parking garage, and 27 dining options under one roof. The Prudential Center is only steps from Boston’s famed Newbury Street, Fenway Park, museums, subways, and the best of Boston culture.

History

Established in 1965.

Located in the heart of Boston’s historic Back Bay, the landmark Prudential Center is a 3.2 million SF mixed-​use urban center comprised of 2.6 million SF of office space and 620,000 SF of retail space. It is also home to the Skywalk Observatory, on the 50th floor, where you can see the only 360 degree view of Boston. The 52-​story Prudential Tower was built in 1965 and is Boston’s second tallest office building. The Shops at Prudential Center, the retail component of the complex, is anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor and consists of 75 stores and restaurants. Major retailers include Ann Taylor, Barnes & Noble (Boston’s largest bookstore), The Cheesecake Factory, Club Monaco, Lacoste, Sephora and vineyard vines. With over 60,000 visitors a day, The Shops at Prudential Center has been ranked among the top 5 shopping centers in the nation by Women’s Wear Daily. The Prudential Center is also home to Boston Duck Tours and a wide assortment of amenities.

Meet the Business Owner

Boston P.

Business Owner

The commercial portion of Prudential Center is owned and managed by Boston Properties, a self-​administered and self-​managed real estate investment trust. Founded in 1970, Boston Properties became a public company in 1997. The company moved its corporate headquarters to Prudential Center after acquiring the complex in 1998. Boston Properties portfolio is primarily first-​class office space, but also includes retail, hotel and industrial buildings.

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21 reviews of The Shops At Prudential Center

No registration required
Place rating: 3
Monterey Park, CA
The Prudential Center is one of the many iconic buildings in Boston. The shops are indoor you its your basic indoor shopping mall experience. If you are loaded — go crazy since most of the shops are high-​end in my opinion. If you are broke or a college student — go window shopping. My favorite thing here by far is the Skywalk Observatory which is a must do if you are visiting Boston. You get an amazing view of the city and Charles River.
Place rating: 4
Boston, MA
Love the Pru; it’s so pretty, it’s so clean. The layout is unlike other shopping plazas and they have some great upscale stores to browse. I mostly like the vendors throughout the middle aisles, as they’re different than ones you’d see at a regular mall. Easy to spend a pretty penny in here if you’ve got it.
Place rating: 3
Queens, NY
Hit or miss shopping center. We went to check it out but couldn’t imagine doing any actual shopping in here. Maybe window shopping.
Place rating: 4
Denver, CO
Our evening began by acquiring two extra friends: Antonio and Maureen. While they might have been inanimate objects, they were not inanimate in their spirit and the way they dressed (pun intended).
28 seconds into our evening the six of us almost lost our lives struck by a semi… HIPSTER riding his bike. Fuck the liberals.
Stop 1: Lord and Taylor
It was the theme of the evening that we each found a doppelgänger. Coincidence? Absolutely not. While Lord and Taylor was impressive, we were whelmed by their music choice; music really can make or break the ambiance, and it was definitely broken. However, besides the MASSIVE music catastrophe, the clothing selection was superb. Their diversity in fur coats made Jacob pee his pants. We exited immediately. 2⁄10
Stop 2: The corridor
Naturally from Winchester, MA, Lisa identifies strongly with tropical vegetation. 10⁄10
Stop 3: Mini Luxe
Maureen and Antonio had been living the lives of the ratchet; they needed to get their nails did. Luxe was impressive in their service, lacquer selection and pleather seating, but we couldn’t quite find their spirit shades. 4⁄10
Stop 4: Street Cred
The great thing about the Pru’s location is that it is frequent you run into someone you know. As held true for our friends. It was a great way to make up for their loss at luxe. 8⁄10
Stop 5: Microsoft and doppelgängers
One might imagine the manufacturer of the iPhone would be able to fix a simple bug in their product but we found otherwise. There is without a doubt an earwig in Grace’s phone and for some reason that wigged them out. They were hot. 7.657÷10 (calculated with regression analysis). We also found the remaining three doppelgängers. The cru at the pru is a 10⁄10
Stop 6: Truffles: A Candied Surprise
Strawberries. Chocolate. Orgasms. We cheated on Maureen and Antonio (it was worth it). 9⁄10
Stop 7: The West Wing Escalator
It was in this moment we realized Maureen had seen better days. Maureen was dead (complete loss of body fluids). Antonio did take the news well. 4 hours later we realized we had lost Antonio. We found him on the west wing escalators. They were running smoothly. 8⁄10
Stop 8: Star Market
Antonio insisted we played a little game to cheer him up (we had never heard of it before). Antonio called it hide and seek. We couldn’t find him. Can you? Mood 4⁄10
All in all, the 5 of us (RIP Maureen who was our strong, savory friend) had a smashing evening, filled with sweets, greens, and mink fur.
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
As a student of Northeastern University years ago, the Prudential Building meant I was close to «home» during my late drunken nights. This also meant lots of shopping sprees here on weekends.
The shops here are rather diverse and attached to Copley Plaza, it can get rather pricey. However, there are kiosks and whatnot that can be a bit more on the affordable side. My favorite has always been the Barnes and Noble here and for awhile, the Cheesecake Factory right when it opened up.
Also, don’t forget to go up to Top of the Hub for some good (but expensive) eats.
Place rating: 3
Markham, Canada
The Shops At Prudential Center is your indoor shopping mall experience if you’re in the Back Bay area and want to enjoy some A/​C on a hot summer day… kinda what I did. Of course, if you have the money, there’s lots of high-​end shops for you to shop… or window shop.
If you’re a pen collector, there’s a shop inside called Levenger that may be of interest to you. They have a lot of high end fountain pens, but they also have pens that are relatively affordable to the middle class purchaser.
Tourists (such as myself) may also be attracted to some Boston, Harvard, MIT t-​shirts/​sweaters located in the standalone stalls throughout the mall. I don’t know if the clothing is authentic, but I figure many wouldn’t care.
Don’t expect much from this mall, but hey it’s a mall and a good place to relax to escape from potential weather extremities.
Place rating: 4
West Palm Beach, FL
We did not realize there was a full blown mall in the Prudential. It was a nice surprise.
The stores were spread throughout in different wings. It is bright but can use more stores.
There is a small park outside and it looks like they are adding more stores and eateries.
Place rating: 4
Boston, MA
I found it a surprise to have a mall in the heart of boston. There’s a good mix of stores and it connects to Copley mall too via skywalk. At prudential, there’s a handful of shops not as many as other malls from nj but enough to make to feel nice. It connects to hotels around so that’s a plus if you’re staying at one. Also, there’s a nice garden in the middle of the mall! Overall, beautiful layout and a handful of nice shops.
Place rating: 2
Boston, MA
Too much anxiety for one shopping center. Although, pink berry ta die for. We weren’t exactly sure if we were still even in the right area at some point. Too much pressure. I bought a Vera caddy tho… Love it!
Place rating: 3
West University, Houston, TX
Located in the heart of Back Bay, Prudential Center is a hot spot for tourists looking for some high-​end shopping. For a semi-​local (I’ve been here almost a month so I think I deserve that title hehe), it was just somewhere to hide from the rain and pass the day.
My biggest issue with this mall is that all the stores are so far apart. There really aren’t that many stores inside this center, and it just felt like it took forever to get around. In addition, the exit locations are not very well marked so a bunch of people just took the single elevator, by Lord & Taylor, up and down to the street since that’s the only exit they could find.
All in all, I would not come again. Tourists: there are much better ways to spend your time in Boston than a mall. Hit up the SoWa markets if you’re looking for something to do on a Sunday or all the farmers markets around town on Saturdays! Even Quincy Market is better than this location.
Place rating: 1
Berkeley, CA
Great shopping, absurd parking rate. Spent $ 40 for two hours. Don’t get me wrong, cities are expensive (my boyfriend lives in San Francisco). When we pulled in there was nothing visible explaining the rate except that it’s $ 17 flat rate for game day parking. Total rip off, you can literally park anywhere else in Boston for cheaper. Lesson learned.
Place rating: 4
Minneapolis, MN
Very convenient mall, right next to the Hilton where I stayed. June 1 was very chilly and we were not expecting that, so it was nice to have the option to stay indoors. There’s plenty of a nice variety of shops and a couple of department stores. There’s a food court. The best part is it provided shelter to walk to different areas of the back bay through it. It’s clean and spacious and has great lighting.
Place rating: 3
Chicago, IL
Not sure if it’s because I am from Jersey (aka, Mall Capital) or what but I hate the lay out of this mall. The hallways are so skinny and on top of that they have kiosks in the middle. Right across from Copley, this is the lower end version with more affordable stores. Typical mall stores. I much prefer Copley Place.
Place rating: 4
Princeton, NJ
Most malls are alike anywhere you go in America, with a few exceptions. This place falls in between both of those categories… It’s an absolutely HUGE mall that connects to multiple hotels and has an abundance of shopping for every budget and age range. Given that I was staying at the Sheraton around Christmas time, which is connected to this mall, it ended up working out well for me.
It’s definitely a tourist trap, but that’s to be expected when you’re surrounded by hotels. However, it’s a great place to explore if you’re visiting the area. From Burberry to The Gap, you can find it all here. Definitely be sure grab a map or pay close attention to where you’re going, because this place is a monstrosity that you will undoubtedly get lost in. The entire mall is spotless though, probably the cleanest I’ve ever seen.
All in all, it’s a pretty cool place as far as malls go. An excellent place to do some shopping and wander. With all the great food in the area however, I’d definitely skip the food court.
Place rating: 4
Houston, TX
At the end of the day this is just a mall. But I liked it. The area is more of an outdoor mall, but covered by glass to protect you from the elements, but with open lighting so you do get to see outside. They have a wider variety of stores and its spacious, so you are not running into other shoppers.
Place rating: 4
Barrington, RI
This is a great place to shop, especially during Boston’s cold and wet wintery months. The Pru has a great food court, a few decent restaurants, and a range of mid– to high-​end stores. If you don’t have money to burn, you can always grab a coffee from Dunkin Donuts and watch people for free!
Place rating: 3
Playa del Rey, CA
***This upscale mall in Downtown Boston features mostly premium brands so I think it has limited appeal; on the plus side though, this mall has a good look, the food court seems better than a lot of mall food courts, and the restrooms are clean and nice***
I am not sure exactly what the parking situation is here though I did see that this mall offers some kind of parking option.
Place rating: 2
Las Vegas, NV
Seriously nothing here except the great tourist center with loads of maps and brochures of to do items.
These are super high end stores and then apartments and lots of banks. Very busy though and its a nice way to utilize air condition to get across from one street to the other.
Place rating: 3
Greater Los Angeles, CA
So this place struck me fairly solidly with a single word, Pretentious. The people, the stores, the sales staff, the information booth; Hell, I think the only thing that didn’t was taking the elevator up to the viewing deck of the skywalk looking out around the city and surrounds of Beantown.
However the mall was very clean. It reminded me of South Coast Plaza or Fashion Island in Southern California. A lot of high end stores, people who are trying to out brand you, or some other stupid psychotic bullchit. So being the munchkin and I came here to go to the skywalk we had no choice but to pass through.
After we cruised around the skywalk for a while, we decided to go look for who knows what, likely knickknacks for souvenirs. We found one shop that tailored to that kind of thing, but nothing that we had wanted. However the munchkin found a stuffed animal retailer and fell in love with a unicorn. As it was her birthday the next day, I got it for her. The sweets shop didn’t carry assorted sourballs much to my great dismay, but their service was the absolute worst. We cruised through food court and got caught by a chicken sample and conned into grubbing. Definitely a good choice for us, as we left feeling full of grub and a beaming smile on the munchkin’s face as she toted around her new best friend ever.
I didn’t understand the poor service from the information booth folks. They had a real attitude that I didn’t understand at all. They also didn’t want to help me with my parking validation and said that I HAD to purchase X amount of stuff in order to get the validation; regardless of our having just been on skywalk. Hence the cruising around shopping when it is definitely not my favorite thing to do.
I also found it very odd that the parking lot led out into the middle of Macy’s or some other similar department store. *shrugs* if they want everyone traipsing through their white clothes after having been outside, that is there problem I suppose.
Overall though it was an uppity mall and glad I don’t have to go back.
Place rating: 4
Boston, MA
Love this mall. I’ve been coming here for years for all sorts of things – shopping, window shopping, killing time, food, and even just to get out of the cold. Great stores which don’t change too often and it seems to have expanded over the last 2 years (since I’ve been gone).
Great food options! So many, so good…
Place rating: 4
Brighton, MA
Night time lights and looking through the glass ceiling, it’s like walking into a green house and admiring the night sky. The plants change seasonally and though they are very real, they seem fake. I haven’t seen a dead tree yet, so that’s a good sign.
The shops are pretty high class and pricey, but sales do happen every once in a while. This place isn’t too big or too small and events like a volunteer fair or a Halloween party for the kids on the weekend are cool.