Think you’ve got a long commute in Los Angeles? Stephen Lassetter’s commute is all the way through Los Angeles – from San Bernardino County to Ventura County.
That 90-mile distance takes him … 35 minutes?
Lassetter explained that he’s got a five-minute drive from his home to the Cable Airport in Upland followed by a 30-minute flight to Camarillo Airport, where he’s president and chief executive of private jet charter and management company Sun Air Jets.
“People just think, ‘Flying, man, what a great hobby,’” said Lassetter, 61. “Hobby? Hell, it’s my way to work.”
Lassetter has been a pilot for 25 years, but started flying to work daily in 2004, when he left a job in Ontario and took the position at Sun Air. He lived in Upland and didn’t want to move, so he bought a single-engine Mooney 201 propeller plane to fly to Camarillo.
Flying saves him an hour or two each way compared with driving, but it’s expensive: fuel, insurance and depreciation cost him about $2,000 a month.
“For me, it’s cheaper than a psychiatrist,” Lassetter said. “It’s the best part of the day for me. You get up there and it’s a different world. It’s relaxing.”
Dinosaur Party
How did Studley Inc. Southern California Regional Manager Mark Sullivan and 150 of his colleagues celebrate the holidays? With drinks, dancing and … dinosaurs.
That’s right, Sullivan, and executives and brokers in Studley’s Southern California offices spent an evening last month in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s new dinosaur hall.
“It was like ‘Night at the Museum,’” said Sullivan, 47, who works in the downtown L.A. office. “We had a cocktail party with a jazz quartet and some big dinosaurs.”
The brokerage rented out the Exposition Park museum for its end-of-the-year party. The firm skipped its regional party the previous year due to financial constraints, but performed much better this past year and wanted to celebrate in style, Sullivan said.
The group was free to wander around the museum and see the exhibits. Sullivan was most impressed with the tyrannosaurus rex fossils, and is eager to bring his children, ages 7 and 5, to see the exhibit.
But as the slow commercial real estate market continues to make brokerages extremely competitive for deals, did Sullivan subconsciously pick the holiday party amid the fossils of what were once the world’s most fearsome predators?
“I’m not sure,” he laughed.
Staff reporters James Rufus Koren and Jacquelyn Ryan contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
