Oh, occurred to me that I assumed that your price range is in the Fargo range.

If you want to go custom, lots of builders will build what you need (e.g Engin cycles, Dave Anderson, Cococino (mtb focused), Hampsten, etc.).

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but before I starting biking I had no idea bout custom builders.

Anyway, as I said before, either way, it'll be fun.