By: Charity Meier | Novi Note | Published June 16, 2026
NOVI — After decades in business, Hattie’s Hallmark in Novi will be closing its doors at the end of this month, having lost its lease to a higher bidder, and the community is in an uproar.
Sisters Diane Ross, of Novi, and Debbie Alba, of Sterling Heights, opened their first Hallmark store in Madison Heights in 1985 and expanded their business with stores in Walled Lake and, in 1996, at their current location at the Novi 10 Shopping Center on 10 Mile Road in Novi.
“We saw the center, and there was a need in the neighborhood,” Ross said.
However, over time and through “natural attrition,” the sisters scaled back and only maintained the Novi store, which continues to have a flourishing business.
“We love the customers. We share everything with them — you know, their happiness, the deaths, births, it’s just the whole celebration of life, everything, all day long,” Ross said.
Ross said she thinks there really is a need for a store such as theirs. She said they do a huge part of their business with seniors who walk to their store from nearby Meadowbrook Commons to pick up a card or mail something at their on-site U.S. postal service.
“Some people come here just to walk around. It’s just a special place to go to when you need a soft place to land,” Ross said. “It’s just a great store. It’s a great fit for this community.”
“It is a very family-oriented community, and I think our store has fulfilled lots of their wishes and dreams, and created friendships,” said longtime employee Shawn Teifke. “The rapport is incredible, the staff we’ve had is all that, too. We just love what we do, and I think that’s why we’ve been loyal for so long.”
After hearing the news of the store’s closure, many people have reached out to the store owners with support, offers of voluntary service, and they got on the horn to voice their dismay by contacting the city, the property management company and the local media.
“It was incredible, the reaction,” Ross said.
“It seemed to go through a Facebook group. On Saturday (May 16), the store was just full of people,” said Alba. “They weren’t doing anything; they were just crying. It was amazing.”
“Yeah they were just seeing the signs and stopping in,” Ross said.
“Nobody was shopping; they were just coming in to show support,” Alba said. “It was crazy.”
Despite the public outcry to keep the store in business, property manager Albert Ludwig, of Tricap Holdings in Farmington Hills, said there is nothing that can be done at this point.
“We signed a lease. Once you sign a lease, you’re stuck. We were stuck, we couldn’t cancel. We couldn’t call up Orangetheory (Fitness) and say we changed our mind. They had a lot of attorney hours into the lease that went into that, and they spent money, and my obligation once I signed the lease was to honor that.”
He said that although Ross and Alba have been good tenants, they have been on a month-to-month lease for a long time. He said he had offered the sisters a chance to lock in with a lease many times, including this past fall, and that they declined saying they were not ready to do so. So, when Orangetheory Fitness put in a request for the space, he presented it to the owners, who accepted the offer, which included a 10-year term, a corporate guarantee, a personal guarantee, and much higher rent than the sisters were paying.
“From a business standpoint, the owners were presented with a very different economic package than what Hallmark had the ability to pay. So, they made a business decision and I implemented it,” Ludwig said.
Ross said that they had been on a month-to-month lease, but she said that she was only offered to lock in a lease once via email, and that she was just not available at the time to sign it, and asked that he contact her at the end of the month to do so, but he did not.
“My only beef with the whole thing is that we were never given the opportunity to counter (the offer),” Ross said.
“I’m from Grand Rapids now, but I’m originally from here, and whenever I need a card, I come here and everyone’s so friendly. I’m going to cry — it’s just sad that this happened,” customer Mary Lee Farrell said while shopping May 21.
“A locally owned store — it’s a shame. Not too many places like that left,” said her sister, Ruth Jagotka, of Novi.
“And a gym,” said Farrell of the change in type of business.
“They will be sorely missed, believe me. This is a fabulous store and the staff is amazing,” said Karen Wydick, of South Lyon.
Hattie’s Hallmark will be open and liquidating its assets through the end of the month. The sisters said a new location could be a possibility in the future, but it was impossible for them to secure it in the time allotted, as it must be approved through Hallmark Real Estate.
“I wish I had another location to put them into, but I don’t,” Ludwig said. “I don’t have anything of the appropriate size in other centers that we manage.”