I like the apartment idea (but it would have to be a BIG apartment, probably a loft or something which takes up an entire floor), but the metahuman gang thing is really kinda hokey, don't you think?
As for setting up a new country in the Americas, we could create a new country in either Central America, South America, or even the Caribbean! North America, of course, has only three countries: Canada, USA, and Mexico. Our resident South American, Mxy, could help us out with some of the details of a Latin American nation.