Day of reckoning nearing for Atlantic Yards?

New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner told the New York Observer last week that he plans to start selling $700 million in bonds for his Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn in "about two weeks." (Another $200 million, you'll recall, is slated to be funded by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the guy he's selling the Nets to.) While usually selling bonds is the final step in the arena-building process, in this case Ratner is intentionally jumping the gun a bit: He has to have bonds in place by the end of the year to qualify them for tax-exempt status before the IRS authorization turns into a pumpkin. To cover the fact that he's still engaged in at least one lawsuit over the arena project — an appeals court hearing is set for October 14 — Ratner is reportedly getting bond insurance that will reimburse bondholders in case the whole project falls apart. (Prokhorov has a get-out-of-purchase-free card in his deal for if that happens.) There's one ot...