I have an idea: How about if we get an official quote from Alembic, divide the cost of building it among us, then have a draw and one of us would win it. We'd need a minimum number of entries to make participating attractive. If it's going to cost around $20,000 (for example) we should have at least 200 people willing to contribute $100. The more people participating, the less the contribution. 500 people would contribute $40, 1000 people would contribute $20 and so on.
Still better odds than a lottery!