BOSTON-Tenant cautiousness, the shrinking footprint of office users and greater efficiencies have all taken a toll on commercial real estate throughout the country, but core markets – like New York, Boston, Washington, DC and San Francisco’s Silicon Valley – have all remained steady from a development and leasing standpoint, chief executives explained during Boston Properties’ third quarter earnings call on Wednesday morning.

The REIT reported FFO of $176.1 million in Q3, compared to $190.3 million in Q3 2011. While the decline was related to the impact of early extinguishment of debt, the company noted a robust development pipeline, totaling 2.7 million square feet of construction across the portfolio. Notably, BXP formed a joint venture with an affiliate of Hines to acquire a development site in San Francisco that could support a new 61-story, 1.4-million-square-foot skyscraper, which will be called Transbay Tower. In addition, the REIT also acquired a development project at 680 Folsom St. and 50 Hawthorne St. from Rockwood Capital and TMG Partners in San Fran, which when completed, will comprise approximately 522,000 net rentable square feet of office space and retail space.

Other current construction projects in BXP's pipeline include Annapolis Junction Building Six in Annapolis, MD; 500 North Capital Street NW in Washington, DC; Two Patriots Park in Reston, VA; Seventeen Cambridge Center in Cambridge, MA; and the Avant at Reston Town Center, a 359-unit multifamily project in Virginia.