Hauppauge knitwear company Royal Apparel buys new warehouse, plans expansion
Abe Mayeri, co-owner of knitwear manufacturer Royal Apparel, inspects garment pattern pieces at company's headquarters in Hauppauge. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Hauppauge-based Royal Apparel, which has made clothes for famous brands like Armani Exchange and bands like The Rolling Stones, plans to expand its business with a new warehouse and a new clothing line made in Mexico.
Co-owners and brothers Morey and Abe Mayeri purchased the 33,540-square-foot warehouse at 10 Commerce Dr. in December, which they plan to renovate, Morey Mayeri said.
The new building sits just one mile from the company headquarters on 91 Cabot Ct., where Royal Apparel makes shirts, sweatshirts, athletic wear, hats and other knit clothing items, Abe Mayeri said.
Royal Apparel purchased the property from grill product seller Mr. Bar-B-Q. The owners did not disclose the purchase price but sources familiar with the deal said the Mayeris paid $7.6 million.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Royal Apparel's purchase of a new warehouse in Hauppauge is part of a larger expansion plan for the Long Island knitwear manufacturer.
- Royal Apparel plans to launch a new clothing line, Basic Supply Co., made in Mexico at a lower price point.
- The Hauppauge-based company manufactures clothing in the United States at its Long Island, New York City and New Jersey locations.
Mr. Bar-B-Q previously used the warehouse as a products showroom, said Gary Chimeri, CEO and president of Paramount Properties Group, who represented Mr. Bar-B-Q in the sale.
The new building will house the manufacturer's fabric, plus new cutting and sewing machines, Morey Mayeri said.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “We’re constantly looking to improve our quality."
The new building will also allow Royal Apparel to make more recycled fabrics, using discarded T-shirts and plastic bottles, Abe Mayeri said. The company primarily serves promotional companies and fashion brands.
Royal Apparel's latest acquisition is part of the company's national expansion plan. The owners also leased a distribution center in San Bernardino, California, in October to grow operations and ship clothes more quickly, Abe Mayeri said.
Manufacturer's expansion plans
Royal Apparel cuts and assembles clothes at its headquarters and in two other sewing facilities in Long Island City and New Jersey, making the company one of a small number of U.S. clothing manufacturers, Morey Mayeri said. Most of the fabric comes from domestic suppliers, he said.
The company employs more than 50 people at Cabot Court and plans to hire between 10 to 15 at the new warehouse, Morey Mayeri said.
The company plans to use the warehouse to launch a new line of clothes, dubbed Basic Supply Co., offering knitwear made in Mexico at a lower price point, he said. “We have a lot of customers who love our stuff, but some of them can't afford the domestic,” he said.
While it’s more expensive to make clothes in the United States, manufacturing locally allows Royal Apparel to make and ship orders quickly, he said.
Morey Mayeri started the business in Manhattan's Garment District in 1993, with Abe joining a few years later. The two moved their company to Hauppauge around 2010, he said.
While Royal Apparel has stayed in business, the number of people employed in the apparel industry in New York has steadily declined in the past 30 years, dropping from more than 100,000 in the early 1990s to less than 8,000 last year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nationally, the U.S. apparel manufacturing industry has also shrunk. In the early 1990s, apparel manufacturers in the United States employed more than 900,000 people, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the industry employed just over 80,000 people.
Hot market for industrial space
Royal Apparel moved quickly to buy the warehouse because there’s limited industrial space available for sale in Hauppauge, said Josh Cohen, a managing director at brokerage Newmark's Long Island office in Melville who represented Royal Apparel in the purchase.
“For every one building that comes up, there’s 10 buyers bidding on it,” Cohen said.
Hauppauge already has a number of other industrial firms, offering skilled employees and access to the rest of the Island, Cohen said.
Other Long Island business owners have bought industrial buildings in the past three months — such as Coco Architectural Grilles & Metalcraft in Holtsville and Integrated Structures in North Bellport — as the cost of renting industrial space has risen. In Suffolk County, the industrial asking rent rose 4% to $18.09 per square foot by the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with a year before, according to a report from brokerage CBRE.
