Why not use Html.RenderAction()?
Then you could put the following into any controller (even creating a new controller for it):
[ChildActionOnly]
public ActionResult MyActionThatGeneratesAPartial(string parameter1)
{
var model = repository.GetThingByParameter(parameter1);
var partialViewModel = new PartialViewModel(model);
return PartialView(partialViewModel);
}
Then you could create a new partial view and have your PartialViewModel be what it inherits from.
For Razor, the code block in the view would look like this:
@{ Html.RenderAction("Index", "Home"); }
For the WebFormsViewEngine, it would look like this:
<% Html.RenderAction("Index", "Home"); %>