It started out as good news.

A reader called to tell us about a beautiful garden taking root at Botanical Square, the large apartment complex on Webster Avenue just south of Mosholu Parkway.

We went over to take a picture and came upon even more good news — new owners were in the process of renovating the buildings. A resident showed us newly painted hallways, better lighting and other improvements.

So, when our enterprising reporter, Heather Haddon, got back to the office, she thought she’d be well on her way toward a good-news story about an enlightened landlord who believed that taking care of the property was a good business investment.

But when she consulted city records available on the Web and discovered that the same company that owned Botanical Square had recently purchased many properties in the area, she did some more digging.

What she found was troubling. The strategy of the Pinnacle organization and the Praedium Group seems to be to buy buildings, fix them up, raise rents more than what a normal capital improvement increase should normally allow, and then sell to the highest bidder.

Longtime tenants will suffer and many will have no choice but to leave.

We expect that local housing advocates (the northwest Bronx has many of these thanks to the area’s history of real estate speculation with disastrous consequences), city officials, and local politicians, will investigate these companies’ practices before it is too late.

Tenants are enjoying the benefits of improved buildings now, but a difficult future could be just around the corner.