NEW YORK CITY-Despite strong gains thus far in 2012, SL Green Realty Corp., the city’s largest office landlord, is moving from an aggressive stance to a more neutral one as the REIT approaches the second half of the year, company officials explained during its second quarter earnings call on Thursday afternoon. The REIT reported funds from operations of $179 million in Q2, an uptick of nearly $67.9 million from Q2 2011’s FFO of $92.9 million, mainly due to the recapitalization of 717 Fifth Ave. shortly before the quarter ended on June 30.

Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green, told investors on the call that several other recent deals put a capstone on the quarter, including major retail leases to Express and Sam Ash in Midtown, the completion of the $500 million sale of One Court Square in Long Island City and $48.5 million disposition of 379 West Broadway in SoHo, the $135 million acquisition of 304 Park Avenue South and major lease renewals to Viacom, Random House and the City of New York and a $775 million refinancing at 1515 Broadway.

At the same time, Holliday said it is harder to read the tea leaves for the rest of the year. “There are mixed signals in the market that make it difficult for us to assess the level of activity for the remainder of 2012,” he said. “Leasing momentum, which was very good in 2010 and 2011, seems to be modestly decelerating, but there are still a number of deals in the market that are getting done. There is more competition from landlords on newer projects in secondary locations, which is serving to restrain for now and further material growth in nominal or net effective rents, and this will probably remain the case for the balance of the year. We are right in the middle of summer, which is traditionally a slow time of year for us and for the leasing market generally, and we’ve also heard from a number of our tenants that they are keeping a watchful eye and a cautious approach on the election, which many see as pivotal to their future leasing and growth activities.”