After helping to close nearly 1M SF of commercial leasing deals in the past three years, JLL associate broker Hayley Shoener now has some hardware to go with her commissions.

The Real Estate Board of New York named Shoener its 2016 Most Promising Commercial Salesperson of the Year at its member luncheon last week at the New York Hilton Midtown.

For the first time, the award winner will sit on REBNY's Commercial Brokerage board of directors and Shoener, a current member of REBNY's Plaza District buildings committee, can't wait to share her passion with other board members.

Monday afternoon, landlord Brause Realty named the JLL team of managing director Amanda Bokman, senior vice president Lloyd Desatnick and Shoener the exclusive leasing agent for 141 West 36th St., a 165K SF, 22-story office tower.

Since joining JLL in 2013, Shoener has quickly moved from learning the ropes of commercial brokerage to representing 3.4M SF of Manhattan office space for landlords. That includes representing the Kaufman Organization's 800K SF building at 437 Madison Ave. On the tenant side, she helped broker Saba Capital's lease for the 58th floor of 405 Lexington Ave.

When Shoener first came to New York from Boston, the city felt overwhelming, but she said being a commercial broker has given her an intimate understanding of New York City that others may not have.

"A satisfying moment in my career," Shoener said, "was once, I was just driving back into the city, seeing the skyline, looking at the buildings, knowing what each building was, each address and who the major tenants in the buildings were."

Shoener started working with JLL managing director Cynthia Wasserberger on JLL's monthly hedge fund report, tracking trends in the marketplace and relating them to real estate activity among hedge funds. It took more than a year in the business for Shoener to reach the point where she played an integral role in a deal, she said. She completed the deal with Wasserberger from start to finish.

She was representing a hedge fund client, which she declined to name, that was moving to New York and opening a new office. Shoener played a significant role for the client throughout the process.

"I had to educate them about the New York market and give them a sense of the relative value here," Shoener said.

Shoener led tours of buildings, giving her client relevant options until she found herself taking the deal from the negotiations stage to the signing of the lease.

"I had a thorough understanding of the market and was really able to advise [my client]," Shoener said. "I really had a good grasp of each step of the transaction, and I wasn't just assisting as needed, along the way."

The Boston College graduate landed a summer internship with JLL while still a junior and was assigned to work in the firm's research department, where she met the firm's senior managing brokers, Wasserberger and Frank Doyle, who inspired her to pursue brokerage once she graduated.

Shoener moved to New York as soon as she could, in June 2013, when JLL hired her as an associate broker. While commercial real estate remains an industry dominated by males, that does not faze Shoener.

"I was not sure what to expect, but I think that being a woman in a male-dominated industry can be an asset," Shoener said. "Women in the industry tend to support each other, and the support is across firms, not just within their own firms."