Exclusive | Last magazine shop on NYCs Upper East Side to close as readers buy up final X-rated fare

It was a mag-nificent run.The Upper East Side’s last print magazine shop — and hotspot to get X-rated mags — will close its doors for good as the building’s landlords aim to convert the building to luxury condos, its owner said.International News and Magazines Inc will be forced out of the East 86th Street storefront at the end of June, said owner Zofar Ahmed — who claims city policy is blocking him from finding a new shop.“I feel like I’m in grief.I feel like I’ve been left alone,” Ahmed, who has run the shop for 28 years, told The Post.Ahmed and his convenience store have been a beloved staple of the neighborhood since he first began hawking cigarettes, candy, magazines and more in 1997, but the cracks started to form in 2020 — and it had nothing to do with the pandemic, he said.His longtime landlords sold the building, and the new owners are planning to raze the building and replace it with luxury apartments, he said.Ahmed, 68, claims his new landlords terminated his lease on a technicality more than two years early this spring.

They claimed the insurance the store held for years was insufficient according to their contract, despite his previous landlords being content with his choice, according to Ahmed.The Pakistani immigrant began scouring the Upper East Side for new storefronts, several of which were interested in taking him on as a tenant — until he learned that he would not be permitted to move his tobacco license to a new address.City law prohibits such licenses from being transferable between locations and places a cap on how many permits can operate within council districts at a time.Business owners like Ahmed have the opportunity to apply for the license lottery just twice a year — in April and October.In the Upper East Side’s District 5, there are already 12 more licenses operating than is technically allowed, and no openings for a new business to grab one — squashing Ahmed’s hopes of starting fresh.Because cigarettes, v...