Business owners gladly rent out downtown offices for ‘Walking Dead’ filming

WORCESTER, Mass. — Filming continued Monday in Downtown Worcester for ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’, and for people working in the area, the production has become a welcome distraction from business as usual.

Sidewalks around the set were filled with crowds of curious onlookers, aspiring actors and inconvenienced employees walking back from their lunch breaks.

Joff Smith, a financial advisor, agreed to have his Norwich Street office transformed into a shoe repair shop for Monday’s filming.

“Last Wednesday, they actually filmed inside my building and on the roof, and today they’re filming exterior shots in front of my building and kind of using my building as a holding area for some of the stars and crew,” Smith said.

Although Smith’s routine has been much different this week, he’s not complaining. Amid all the chaos which comes from transforming Downtown Worcester into a Manhattan zombie wasteland, he’s noticed the filming sessions have provided a nice boost for the local economy.

He said tax credits have incentivized more television shows and movies to film in Massachusetts, and he hopes local employees will reap the benefits.

“They hired a lot of local people both as part of the crew and even potentially local extras, helped business owners like myself to be able to rent out my building during filming, and bring some added excitement to Downtown to shake things up a little bit,” Smith said.

Minutes away, Westerman’s Prop Shop has also been keeping busy, shuffling newspaper stands, trash cans, benches and broken furniture over to the set to make this small section of the city nearly unrecognizable.

Manager Dan Diaz said his crew has helped out with multiple Worcester productions in the past, but it’s always helpful to have the set so close to home.

“There have been many, many projects that have come through Worcester, and it’s great when they’re here because it’s in our backyard,” Diaz said. “We’re not shipping stuff to Los Angeles, the United Kingdom, it’s right here in Worcester, which is great for me.”

Filming is expected to wrap up this week, allowing Smith and other Norwich Street employees to get back to their day jobs.

But until then, Smith has some other talents he’d like to bring to the table.

“Besides my financial planning business, I’ve been fortunate to do some acting work over the years in various movies and commercials,” Smith said. “I’ve been in talks with them now to potentially get a speaking role in this upcoming season, so stay tuned. We’ll see what happens with that.”