The new Siegel in town; The word on the Strip is “Fore!”

Any article that begins by described the late Star Trek: The Experience as “essentially weird” has one strike against it. (I can’t tell you how many former employees told me it was the best job they ever had.) Such is the case with Brock Radke‘s somewhat snooty look at the reinvention of the International/Las Vegas Hilton/Las Vegas Hotel as Westgate Las Vegas. (Radke even gets the date of the Colony Capital takeover wrong and flubs the reason it ceased to be a Hilton.)

“I definitely saw a great opportunity here, but more important, it felt like it was my destiny to own the former International Hotel and make it a Westgate resort,” says owner David Siegel, who plans to double down on his $160 million purchase with a comparable amount of capex reinvestment. Siegel even has some familial history with Elvis Presley. Thanks to having seen The King about 15 times at the then-International, Siegel feels “destined” to own the property. His operating philosophy is simple. “We’re not going after the kids that come from LA bringing their cooler and their six-packs. We cater to middle America, people that want to vacation within their budget but feel like a Rockefeller.”

Siegel’s promising a complete renovation of the hotel’s room inventory (he’s about a third of the way through), as well as a gradual conversion of more and more rooms into timeshares, eventually comprising the majority of the property, as much as 70%. (Timeshare fleas are a major source of complaint from visitors to Westgate now.) He’s also talking about converting single units into three- or even six-bedroom suites.

Colony never did squat with the old Star Trek space, but Siegel is promising a day- and nightclub for that fallow acreage, a long-overdue move. And there’s going to be some kind of Elvis show. (Don’t worry: Siegel’s not bringing back Viva Elvis.) Unlike a different Siegel, this one promises, “I would like to leave my mark on Vegas, but I’m not egotistical enough to think I’m in the league of those legendary guys who transformed Vegas into what it is today.”

Speaking of leagues, Siegel owns the AFL’s Orlando Predators. I wonder how long it will be before he feels civic pressure to move them to Las Vegas.

* “Over the top” is how TopGolf CEO Ken May describes his planned driving range, to be built on land out behind MGM Grand. The 215-yard, eight-acre range will feature 102 hitting bays on four tiers. Reports Bloomberg News, “In a Las Vegas twist, the company, which owns 16 driving ranges around the world, will include a stage for live concerts and a rooftop VIP deck with cabanas and swimming pools.” That’s certainly far from your normal golf-course experience. Restaurants, bars, 3,000 feet of meeting space and even catering services are promised.

The $50 million golf extravaganza is scheduled for a spring 2016 debut. The attraction will monetize some acreage on Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane that used to be an amusement park but is now just “What the heck is that?” TopGolf COO Randy Starr told the Dallas Business Journal, “We see Las Vegas as a fitting flagship for our concept nationally.” If you didn’t already sense that TopGolf is thinking big, it expects one million duffers in Year One and $700 million worth of economic impact by 2026.

But if you believe that being just off the Las Vegas Strip is thinking big, TopGolf has New York City on its to-do list, along with Orlando and Nashville.

* Japan continues to vacillate on casino gambling. Word is that the current session of the Diet will take up the issue again, with Yokohama and Osaka the leading beneficiaries of the proposed legalization, out of 20-plus municipalities. You’d think that with so much civic interest, it might be a priority to pass the enabling legislation. But no. “Many experts say odds are low for a start by 2020, as some local governments would like,” reports Japan Times. The governors of both Osaka and Yokohama are budgeting money to study the construction of an integrated resort (Singapore is the new role model, it seems). Yokohama has 123 acres for a megaresort while Osaka could put it on a landfill out in the bay.

Takashi Kiso, CEO of Japan’s International Casino Institute, however, takes the Eeyore view of the viability of legalizing, choosing and building megaresorts in five years. The only way to get it done in time for the 2020 Olympics, he says, would be to open them in unfinished form. That’s not an auspicious way to introduce casino gambling to the Land of the Rising Sun.