Sydney Sweeney, Austin Butler, and Michael B. Jordan are spending time in a quaint New Jersey town being transformed for their movies.
“New stores opening up?”
That was the excited question of one Wayne, NJ, resident on Facebook after photos surfaced on a community corner page showing construction taking place at a local strip mall.
The town’s Preakness Shopping Center used to be host of several businesses adored by residents: a Macy’s, a small movie theater, and beloved family-run diner.
Sadly, in the years leading up to COVID-19, a majority of the retailers moved out without being replaced, with the Macy’s functioning as a vaccination center during the pandemic and a Spirit Halloween moving in seasonally to fill in the glaring gaps in the storefronts.
But to the surprise and delight of residents, a stretch of the mall was refreshed and reformed almost overnight on Oct. 1, bringing new life to a space that’s been sitting in limbo for years.
And while the construction didn’t turn out to be the 200 or so apartments that’s been the talk of the town for years, for some, the replacement was even better:
A movie set.
The mini mall has several businesses still in operation, including a salon and CVS (far right), while the rest of the space has been transformed into 1980s Miami. (Dina Sartore-Bodo/ Realtor.com) 
Palm trees are moved in by the crew to give the New Jersey town a more Miami feel. (Dina Sartore-Bodo/ Realtor.com) 
Palm trees could be seen by local residents both entering the shopping center and from across the street. (Dina Sartore-Bodo/ Realtor.com) Hollywood moves in
Turns out, a production crew is preparing to shoot “Miami Vice ’85” in Wayne in the coming weeks.
The Universal film will feature Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan in the leading roles of the fan-favorite NBC series being brought to the big screen. Production is already in progress, with the film’s set release date of May 19, 2028.
Residents of Wayne, which was voted one of the hottest ZIP codes in 2025, saw crews bring in tall, fake palm trees into the lot, as well as several abandoned shopfronts completely converted into set pieces straight out of a Hollywood backlot.
Now, there’s façades for a handful of time-centric stores, like a men’s clothing boutique and a VCR repair shop, sitting alongside a modern-day—and operational—CVS.
And that's not all. Just a few days later, another movie was spotted filming in town. Sydney Sweeney was photographed filming her new movie, "The Housemaid's Secret," at William Paterson University in Wayne on Oct. 6. The film is a sequel to Paul Feig’s "The Housemaid" and will find Brittany Snow and Kirsten Dunst as Sweeney's co-stars.
And this is likely just the beginning of big movies coming to town—not just for Wayne, but the state as a whole.
Among the stores built in the space are a video rental store, an ice cream shop, and a liquor store. (Dina Sartore-Bodo/ Realtor.com) 
The abandoned storefronts have been completely transformed, with production creating a practical set. (Dina Sartore-Bodo/ Realtor.com) 
The storefronts were completely stocked with merchandise, as if they were stores time-warped from the 1980s. (Dina Sartore-Bodo/ Realtor.com) The Netflix effect
Last year, Netflix made a nearly $1 billion investment to transform a previously shuttered 292-acre former U.S. Army base in Fort Monmouth, NJ, into its East Coast production hub.
Though the new Netflix Studios won't be completed until 2028, several huge projects have segued to filming in locations across the Garden State since then, and the prospect of the entertainment industry making New Jersey its new home is having an impact on real estate.
"As someone who has lived, worked, and raised a family here in Monmouth County for many years, I can tell you firsthand that there’s already been an uptick in interest since the Netflix Studios announcement," Teresa Minnick, a broker with Christie's International Real Estate Group and director of sales for The Atlantic Club Residences, a posh new luxury development in Long Branch, NJ, previously shared with Realtor.com®.
Case in point: In May, NJ.com reported that a five-bedroom residence in Little Silver, NJ, was sold for $2.6 million—a whopping $500,000, or 24%, above its $2.1 million asking price.
Breathing new life into a local community
Back in Wayne, the recent filming is putting the spotlight back on a very desirable area just outside of New York City.
“The filming is putting Wayne on the map, for sure,” says Shawn Anen, a local Wayne real estate agent who has serviced residents for over 20 years. “It's drawing attention to it, and I’m a big believer that this kind of attention is a good thing.”
And while local residents are excited about the prospect of seeing an Oscar winner around town, they’re equally excited to see a parcel of land that has become an “eyesore,” as Anen calls it, be put to good use.
Especially when, by now, the Preakness Shopping Center was meant to be transformed into a “beautiful downtown,” according to Anen.
The Wayne Township Council had signed off on a deal with the owner of the shopping center in 2020 for construction of 244 apartments at the strip mall.
The project would have demolished the Macy's as well an abandoned IHOP that has been sitting idle since a fire tore through in 2002 to build a four-story complex and a seven-deck parking garage.
However, when Anen spoke to Wayne’s mayor, Christopher Vergano, just over a year ago, the mayor revealed why that project never got off the ground.
“Interest rates went up,” Vergano told Anen in their interview. “To get any building materials, prices went up crazy.
“Does it look terrible? Absolutely. Do we wish we had something else there? Yes.”
Now, two years later, “something else” has presented itself in the form of this film set, putting a spotlight on the town at a time when buyer interest in the area continues to be on the rise.
Anen says Wayne is a “very strong market” that’s actually starting to balance out a bit for sellers and buyers alike.
Anen has seen inventory “essentially double” in the past six months due to the amount of new construction on the market, and he maintains that it’s a “strong seller's market,” with prices leveling off, but still in a high range.
So, could Wayne go the way of Fort Monmouth? Maybe, maybe not—but as fake palm trees take root where stalled apartments could not, Wayne can still enjoy its close-up.