Senior Managing Director
ssonley@veatchcommercial.com
(703) 244-2828

Susan has worked in the commercial real estate industry since 1981. She moved into commercial leasing and sales after 17 years with OmniOffices/Regus and within her first year at then Grubb & Ellis, a large, national commercial real estate firm, earned the National Rookie of the Year Award.

Over her career, Susan has built many strong national and local real estate relationships which have helped her achieve excellent transactional results for all of her clients. After almost 22 years with Grubb & Ellis and its’ eventual purchaser, Newmark, Susan saw the benefit of changing to a smaller, more elite boutique firm and chose Veatch Commercial because of its outstanding reputation in the Tenant Representation industry and the collaborative environment.

Susan’s successes on both sides of the commercial real estate transaction are numerous; though in 2020, she moved her focus specifically to all stages of the tenant side of a real estate transaction. Shen brings a broad array of knowledge and talent that includes programming the tenant’s needs, market and building surveys, proposals and Letter of Intent negotiations, lease review, tenant buildout and construction pricing review and each stage of a transaction – both before and after a lease is signed.

She has also represented many clients with SCIF requirements and has completed numerous transactions in this highly specialized arena.

While Susan concentrates upon the Northern Virginia and Washington DC markets using her long-established relationships for collaboration, she has represented tenants all over the United States with large and small leases and purchases.

Susan’s list of clients includes representation of government contractors including those with SCIF requirements, law firms, 501(c)(3) charities, insurance and 8a companies, associations, major corporations, medical offices and sporting events companies in addition to general businesses in office and flex environments.

Susan is licensed in Virginia. She has held Board positions with the Greater Washington DC Board of Commercial Realtors, formerly known as GWCAR now CREBA for many years and is currently serving on the Board of the Northern Virginia National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP Northern VA) and on their Board and Executive Committees. She has Co-Chaired the NAIOP Northern VA Bus Tour several times and mentors a new generation of young professionals in their commercial real estate careers.

Susan is well known and equally well respected within the Washington DC commercial real estate community for her brokerage work and community service, especially for her activism and volunteer work with Susan G. Komen since 1995. Susan has consistently earned the Top Fundraiser Award in their Washington DC event and to date has raised over $2.1 million for Komen with the help of her team and won the National Top Fundraiser Lifetime Award in the fight against breast cancers. In addition, she was a founding member and volunteer for over 15 years of the American Cancer Society National Capitol Golf Classic, which raised several million in the fight against prostate cancer.