As I have listed in my profile, I am an orchestral musician and still perform to this day. 

Two performing units still have a value for an investor.

The 401(k) will not have sheltered the gain in value and you will likely end up in a very high tax bracket in the year of distribution.The better strategy is to focus the 401(k) capital on the investment(s) that will produce the best results for the plan, not something you are personally interested in.If the plan held a property that performed well for 5, 10 or 15 years to the point of your retirement, then have the plan sell that property. 

I have 5 duplexes in Detroit all rented out and performing well.

-- I want to *own* my own video / dance studio /performance space.   

I am sure you came across this while googling, but I thought this site was interesting/helpful. http://www.mmac.org/economic-trends.htmlAs a numbers guy as well, I am curious to see what other resources folks on here are using! 

My goal is to perform a back-to-back close using a transactional lender.

What source/site is best used for finding owners of properties ?

Have you looked on the county assessor site for an owner?

As I said before, there is opportunity here, but there are also a lot of "cheap" old buildings whose locations are even of little value.But you are correct, in the past months, we've seen a lot more "money from away" coming to town and buying buildings "site-unseen".