Flushing Financial, a New York-based commercial real estate lender, is seeking to raise $70 million to shore up its capital, CNBC has learned.

The bank’s CEO, John Buran, has told potential investors that he intends to sell low-yielding bonds and loans backed by commercial real estate, including multifamily buildings, moves that would generate a loss and necessitate the sale of fresh stock, people with knowledge of the deal told CNBC.

Bankers working on the deal have yet to finalize pricing, but it will likely be between $15 to $15.50 per share, according to one of the people, below the $17.25 level the stock closed at on Thursday.

The bank declined to comment to CNBC earlier Thursday, but later issued a release confirming the equity sale.

Banks with commercial real estate exposure have struggled after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates through 2023, leaving them with unrealized losses on their balance sheet. New York Community Bank was forced to raise capital earlier this year after its stock sank amid concerns over its portfolio of commercial loans.

Most of the U.S. banks under pressure are community banks with under $10 billion in assets, like Flushing, which had about $9.3 billion in assets as of September.

Now, with a rebound in bank stock prices this year and the start of a Fed easing cycle in September, investors expect more banks to raise capital in the coming months. Behind the scenes, regulators have been prodding banks with confidential orders to improve capital levels.

“The rate environment is still a challenge, but we’re controlling what we can control and setting the foundation for a better future,” Buran told analysts in October.

Shares of Flushing Financial have risen about 5% this year through Thursday, trailing the 18% rise in the KBW Regional Banking Index.

After ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump stopped short of telling investors to buy more stock as he gets set to take office.

“I don’t want to get into a situation where they do and we have a dip or something, because that can always happen,” Trump told CNBC’s Jim Cramer during “Squawk on the Street.”

Trump repeatedly used the stock market as a performance barometer during his first term. In that time, the S&P 500 scaled nearly 68% — reaching all-time highs. Part of that was due to corporate tax cuts passed by the administration at the time. The Federal Reserve also maintained interest rates close to historical lows back then as it tried to spur inflation — also boosting stock prices.

He touted at the exchange on Thursday the possibility of lowering taxes again. “We’re gonna do things that haven’t really been done before. We’re gonna cut taxes still further,” he said. “You pay 21% if you don’t build here. If you do, we’re going to try and get it to 15%, but you have to build your product, make your product in the USA.”

Wall Street CEOs and investors such as Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon and Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman came to the NYSE for Trump’s bell-ringing ceremony. Ackman told CNBC later that “most of the country understands that the more successful businesses are, the more the stock market goes up, the more that their wages rise, the more job growth, the more opportunity, the more businesses who come to this country, it lifts all boats.”

To be sure, while Trump refrained from telling investors to buy stocks now, he maintained a bullish outlook longer term.

“I think long term this is going to be a country like no other. We had the three best years ever until Covid came,” he said after being named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

—With reporting by Yun Li