An artist's rendering of the Monarch development in Chinatown.

A major housing project has broken ground in one of Downtown Fresno’s most underserved areas.

On Wednesday the City of Fresno celebrated the “virtual” groundbreaking for the Monarch, a $24.6-million housing project in Chinatown under the supervision of the Fresno Housing Authority. It comes as part of the Transform Fresno initiative, which provides $66.5 million in cap-and-trade proceeds from the State of California.

Among the speakers for the event were Preston Prince, Housing Authority president and Morgan Doizaki, Central Fish Co. owner and leader in the effort to revitalize the neighborhood.

“This project is the jump start a place like Chinatown really needs to make progress in the community,” Doizaki said. “I’m so glad that politicians beyond Fresno’s boundaries have come in to help and save Chinatown.”

The project will contain 56 affordable housing units on the top three floors and retail and business space on the bottom floor.