Living in New York City, seeing bizarre things do not necessarily have to be from a movie production, but odds are, it is and it is common for us. Residents in Senoia, Georgia were not used to such bizarre things until 2010. Now seeing zombies roam the streets of their neighborhood is as normal as seeing your neighbors every morning before you leave for work.

These zombies are referred to as “walkers” and are actually actors from the hit AMC TV series, The Walking Dead, which returns with new episodes this Sunday, February 14th. The show has been filming in Senoia, only 40 miles outside of Atlanta, since the beginning of the series, marking a total of six years now. The town is definitely reaping the benefits of them being there too.

In 2008, film and television productions have adapted to the Atlanta area and other parts of Georgia. With this wave of film and television projects, it has boosted the construction project timeline and housing market in these areas. About two dozen film and television shows have been filmed there, including southern classics such as Fried Green Tomatoes, Driving Miss Daisy, and Sweet Home Alabama. A series of celebrities, including Tom Cruise and Amy Adams, have been temporary residents in Georgia while their movies were filming there.

In The Walking Dead, they are currently in the “safe zone” known as Alexandria, located in Virginia in the show. In reality, the town is located in Senoia. The development they are using is actually a halted construction project, now with a 15 foot wall built around it. The development was set in motion to build up to 75 homes on the 12 acres of land across from the train tracks by a main street. Since the development was originally built for residents and not as a studio production, there are seven families that live in there permanently while filming for the show goes on between May to November. Those families are paid undisclosed sums for their inconvenience during the filming months. There is even a security guard who sits in a car all day to prevent non-residents from entering the development, all in prevention of spoilers.

With the new abundance of production trailers in Senoia the past few years and the Pinewood Atlanta Studios, hollywood productions of both big-budget and small are flowing into Georgia, helping tighten up the rental and commercial real estate markets. Atlanta topped the 2016 MovieMaker magazine’s list of “Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker” at number one! (New York ranting in second.) These movie productions are bringing in both big name actors and filming crew members who travel often to rent homes, condos, and townhouses in the downtown and midtown area.

The town even prospered from the show’s filming. Today, there are more than 50 businesses on Main Street. The population has also doubled to 4,200 people. Senoia has become a tourist attraction for Walking Dead fans. There are Walking Dead tours, a store, and even a cafe all themed after the show, selling merch like action figures and comic books. Main Street is even proposed to build eight retail spaces and 10 upscaled lofts by this Summer.

Is this what Staten Island has in store once the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility is turned into the borough’s first movie studio? Operating 27 sound stages in Brooklyn and Queens, Broadway Stages is converting the correctional facility by building 5 sound stages on the 69-acre property. This transformation, once complete over the next five years, will create 1,500 jobs, over three times the number of people employed by the prison.