Wake Forest Exchange (WFE), the expansive new commercial development off Capital Boulevard in Wake Forest, has secured two new tenants as it fills out occupancy at its 60,000+ square- foot flex space at 920 Timberline View Drive.
Earlier this year, North State Pools LLC established its headquarters operations there, using the space for retail traffic and water-testing activities. Established in 2015, the company installs, maintains, and repairs in-ground swimming pools for residential and commercial customers across the region. It is a rare one-stop shop for pool owners and operators, even collaborating with landscape architects to create appealing outdoor recreational spaces. The company’s expertise in the climate and soil conditions in the coastal Carolinas also distinguishes North State Pools in the marketplace.
Adam Mills, North State Pools’ owner, liked the building’s adaptability, as well as Wake Forest Exchange’s accessibility for its customers. “920 Timberline View Drive looks like and functions as a commercial office building, but can also support retail uses,” Mills said. “We always wanted to start a water testing subsidiary, but our former offices were not visible from the road, and few people walked by our space.”
The 8,000-sq.-ft. presence nearby of Happy Feet Planet, a family-centered retail business that arrived in Wake Forest a year ago, helped convince Mills that WFE was conducive to consumer traffic. The property also provides his company with the space needed for administrative operations and storage. “It is extremely difficult to find new office space in the Wake Forest area, especially a product that is so multi-functional,” Mills added.
Also settling into space at 920 Timberline View is Equal Optics, a national provider of optical connectivity, network cabling, and server memory. The company was formerly based in Cedar Park, Texas, a suburb northwest of Austin. Equal Optics serves buyers in the AI, data center, telecommunications, and other markets. Its 12,000-sq.-ft space at WFE includes engineering, testing, and lab space focused on next-generation optical connectivity and related technologies for the digital economy. The company’s 45-person workforce is largely remote, but Dan Hennen, president of Equal Optics, envisions adding employees in Wake Forest over the coming year.
Hennen, who moved to Wake Forest during the pandemic, chose Wake Forest because of its livability and convenience to the Triangle’s amenities. The firm considered other communities in the region, but the ready availability of flex space at WFE led it to 920 Timberline View. “Wake Forest Exchange fulfilled every real estate requirement, especially the single-story, multi-functional design which can support front office, research and development, testing, and warehouse/logistics needs,” Hennen said.
Proximity to a major international airport was also a factor for Equal Optics, which maintains a distribution facility in Orange County, California. Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) currently has non-stop commercial air service to 90 global destinations and is undertaking a $2.5 billion expansion of terminal facilities, parking, support services and a new runway. Hennen also liked the “presence of like-minded companies” in the region, as well as access to I/T workers. Tech legends such as IBM, SAS, Red Hat, Cisco, and Lenovo anchor the region’s private economy, while the area’s research universities churn out engineering and scientific talent each year.
St. John Properties entered the Research Triangle market in 2022. A year later, it publicly unveiled ambitious plans for Wake Forest Exchange. The site will ultimately span more than 180,000 square feet of flex/R&D, single-story medical flex, and retail space upon completion. In May 2025, company officials joined leaders from the Town of Wake Forest in formally breaking ground on the sprawling property. A year later, St. John Properties hosted a ribbon-cutting for its retail-oriented space along Star Road.
“In economic development, it’s not enough to simply have a world-class community,” explained Jason Cannon, President of the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership (WFBIP). “Having ready-to-go Class A business properties available is the ultimate green light for a growing business. What St. John Properties is doing at Wake Forest Exchange is proving its appeal to regional consumer-oriented businesses like North State Pools and Happy Feet Planet, but also national tech companies such as Equal Optics. The bold investment and excellent execution that St. John Properties is undertaking in Wake Forest is already generating noticeable benefits,” Cannon said.
